But this year something is amiss. Bats have been leaving the cave long before they are supposed to and find themselves without food or shelter in the cold Vermont spring.

Text and photographs by Jane Lindholm

The disease was first discovered last winter in two caves in New York. Nearly every single bat in those caves died. Now more than 500,000 bats are affected in caves and mines in at least five north-eastern states. But scientists have yet to figure out exactly what the illness is, what causes it, or how to prevent it.