The little brown bat, once the most numerous bat species in the eastern United States, has faced significant decline due to white nose syndrome. This fungus has devastated their numbers during hibernation, nearly pushing them to extinction over the past ten years.
Recently, conservation biologist Giorgia Auteri and her team discovered genetic mutations in bats that have survived the fungal threat. These mutations may reveal how natural selection is altering the bat population and could guide future conservation strategies.
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You can listen to Short Wave on platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The episode production credits go to Hannah Chinn, with editing by Rebecca Ramirez and Lauren Gonzalez. Fact-checking was handled by Tyler Jones, and Annlie Huang served as the audio engineer.
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