Why "white-nose syndrome" that has been wreaking havoc on the country's bat population for quite a while now is hitting a fever pitch, with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service warning that the little guys might soon be extinct thanks to the deadly fungus. more ›

A Delta flight from Madison, WI to Atlanta, Georgia was aborted on Friday after what appears to be a bat started flapping around the cabin, CNN reports. Here's video of the winged stowaway, taken just moments after a pale-skinned passenger wearing a black cape mysteriously disappeared in a puff of smoke: more ›

A Department of Sanitation worker faces a number of charges after a bat-swinging road rage incident on Staten Island over the weekend. 42-year-old Joseph Pasquale, who has been with the department for 18 years, was driving his white Ford pickup truck on Staten Island Saturday morning when he allegedly cut off an unidentified 22-year-old woman. In response, she reportedly honked her horn. An outrage! Pasquale certainly wasn't going to stand for that level of disrespect—especially not with his 5-year-old daughter in the cab with him. And he allegedly keeps a baseball bat handy for just such teachable moments. more ›

Holy walking tour, Batman! This past Friday, the American Museum of Natural History held the first of three evening bat walks through Central Park. Husband and wife team Brad Klein and Danielle Gustafson of the New York Bat Group share their knowledge of bats with New Yorkers interested in venturing into the park after dark, rabid raccoons be damned. The dynamic duo uses an electronic bat detector to track the bats by amplifying their high frequency chirps. more ›

Tens of thousands of bats have died along the Northeast states, apparently from "white nose syndrome," prompting investigations from state and federal authorities. The most common characteristic in the dead bats is "a white fungus encircling the noses of some, but not all, of the bats," according to the NY Department of Environmental Conservation. The NY DEC adds, "It is not clear how this fungus alone can cause bats to die, however, impacted bats deplete their fat reserves months before their normal springtime emergence from hibernation, and starve to death as a result." Bats are important because they love eating insects—the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services says, "One bat can eat between 600 and 1,000 mosquitoes and other insect pests in just one hour." Now the worry is that the disease will move from the Northeast to the continent's largest bat colonies in the South and Southwest, with extinction a distinct possibility. The Star-Ledger reports that the NJ state Division of Fish and Wildlife only counted 750 bats at Rockaway Township hibernating location; a zoologist said, "We normally find between 26,000 and 29,000 bats in our counts there at the same time each year." more ›

A Bronx man was shot and killed by the police after he refused to drop a baseball bat. The NYPD had been called to a domestic dispute "involving a weapon" at an apartment building Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. WCBS 2, which reports, "A 40-year-old man who lived at the building refused to drop a bat he was holding, and instead lunged at them." Police fired once, hitting him in the chest, and the man died during surgery at the hospital. Last month, the police fatally shot an emotionally disturbed person who wielded a folding chair; the NYPD later backed the shooting, explaining, "Basically, was there an imminent threat to life or serious injury? That is the defining statement.” more ›

The suspect who allegedly struck Pelagio De La Cruz seven times in the head with a bat during a late-night robbery in the Bronx has turned himself over to police. Jamal Roman, 26, was arrested yesterday after being identified by his accomplice, 20-year-old Gavin Scott, who surrendered earlier, accompanied by his grandmother. Scott was captured on a surveillance video rifling through De La Cruz's pockets after Roman allegedly beat the victim outside a University Heights building. As he was led out of the 52nd Precinct last night, Scott yelled to reporters, "I didn't hit him. I didn't do nothing wrong." De La Cruz remained unconscious until last Thursday, when he finally opened his eyes. On Sunday he spoke for the first time, and is undergoing reconstructive surgery on his jaw and face. more ›