DENVER - Colorado Parks and Wildlife researchers have seen no sign of the deadly white-nose syndrome in Colorado's bat populations but say monitoring and help from the public will still be needed in 2012.

  "Many bat populations are found in caves and mines on private land," explained Tina Jackson, who heads the bat conservation work of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. "As we did last year, we'd like the public to let us know if they find dead bats this winter."

  Bats typically hibernate during Colorado's cold winter months but bats affected by white-nose syndrome may move toward cave entrances or leave hibernation sites entirely. Bats that die near cave entrances or are found outside of caves during the winter months are also of interest to researchers and wildlife managers.

  "We're asking anyone who sees unusual bat activity or finds dead bats this winter to contact us so that we can test to determine what's going on," Jackson explained.

  In addition, wildlife researchers are also conducting winter and spring surveys to assess bat populations and sample for disease.

  White-nose syndrome is named for the white, powder-like material seen on the nose, ears, and wings of infected bats. Without any natural protections, white-nose syndrome can wipe out 95 percent of a bat colony in a couple of years. It has been predicted that white-nose syndrome could eliminate little brown bats in the northeastern U.S. within 16 years.

 White-nose syndrome has not been found in Colorado. Since being first documented in 2007 in a cave in New York, white-nose syndrome has spread to 19 states and four Canadian provinces. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that white-nose syndrome has resulted in the death of up to 6.7 million bats in North America. In 2010, a bat found in a cave in northwestern Oklahoma, less than 200 miles from the Colorado border tested positive for the fungus.

 Scientists are still learning about white-nose syndrome, which strikes bats during hibernation, when bat immune systems effectively shut down, allowing the fungus to become established. Bats in colonies infected with white-nose syndrome arouse from hibernation more frequently than uninfected populations, possibly because of irritation, hunger or thirst. The increased number of arousals from hibernation quickly depletes the bat's fat reserves and results in starvation. The fungus also causes significant damage to the wings, affecting the health of the bat and perhaps compromising their ability to fly and capture insects.

  Colorado is home to at least 18 species of bats, 13 of which are believed to hibernate in the state. Bats that migrate to warmer climates for the winter are not believed to be affected by white-nose syndrome. All the bat species found in Colorado are insect eaters, in some cases eating thousands of insects a night. This diet of night-flying insects makes bats important for the control of agricultural and human pests. Bats are also important to the underground environments they roost in, bringing energy into these mostly closed systems in the form of guano.

 The public is asked to not disturb hibernating bats and to respect cave closures. While the public is asked to avoid going near bat caves and abandoned mines, people are being asked to report if they see any signs of white-nose syndrome. Signs include:

 * Bats moving to the openings of the hibernation site during the winter.

  * Bats leaving hibernation sites in the winter, especially on cold days.

 * Bats with a white powder-like material on their nose, ears or wings.

  * Dead bats.

  Members of the public who see any active or dead bats this winter are asked to report that information to a special phone line (303-291-7771) or e-mail address (Wildlife.Batline@state.co.us).

  Because bats also can be affected by other health problems, including rabies, people should use precautions such as disposable gloves or an inverted plastic bag when handling bat carcasses. The public is also advised not handle live bats that appear to be ill.

 For more information on white-nose syndrome, visit: Http://wildlife.state.co.us/Research/WildlifeHealth/WNS/

 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has photos of white-nose syndrome affected bats in the eastern United States available on its website at: http://www.fws.gov/whitenosesyndrome/photos.html

 A photo of Colorado's largest bat colony at the Orient Mine is available at: http://dnr.state.co.us/ImageDBImages/23694.JPG

  For information on all of the great outdoor adventures in Colorado, visit them on the web at: http://wildlife.state.co.us/Pages/Home.aspx .

     Welcome to the second installment of our new feature, Profiling the States. Each month we will attempt to bring you some tidbits about an individual state such as their nickname, size, some of their fishing and game records or other interesting facts. There aren’t any set rules to this so each state’s profile can vary from the next. This month we go north to…..

  ALASKA

  Nickname: The Last Frontier
  Size: 570,374 square miles, ranked 1st in size.
  Admitted to the Union: 1959, 49th state.

  Fishing Records;
  Arctic Char/Dolly Varden: 19 lbs. - 12.5 oz.
  King Salmon: 97 lbs. - 4 oz.
  Chum Salmon: 32 lbs.
  Coho Salmon: 26 lbs.
  Cutthroat Trout: 8 lbs. - 6 oz.
  Grayling: 4 lbs. - 13 oz.
  Halibut: 440 lbs.
  Lake Trout: 47 lbs.
  Northern Pike: 38 lbs.
  Pink Salmon: 12 lbs. - 9 oz.
  Rainbow/Steelhead Trout: 42 lbs. - 3 oz.
  Sockeye Salmon: 16 lbs.

  Game World Records – According to Boone & Crockett Club, (www.booneandcrockettclub.com);
  Barren Ground Caribou: 477 inches. Taken in 1999.
  Yukon Moose: 261 5/8 inches. Taken in 1994.
  Grizzly Bear: 27 13/16 inches. Taken in 1976.
  Alaska Brown Bear: 30 12/16 inches. Taken in 1952.
  Polar Bear: 29 15/16 inches. Taken in 1963.
  Dall Sheep: 189 6/8 inches. Taken in 1961.
  Pacific Walrus: 147 4/8 inches. Taken in 1997.
  Sitka Blacktail Deer: 134 inches. Taken in 1987.

  Quick Facts:
  Seventeen of the 20 highest peaks in the United States are in Alaska. The highest of the 17 is Mt. McKinley at 20,320 ft., the highest peak in North America.
  The Yukon River is the third longest river in the U.S. at almost 2000 miles long.
  North America’s strongest recorded earthquake ever recorded with a moment magnitude of 9.2 rocked central Alaska on March 27, 1964.
  1784 – Russian Grigorii Shelikhov establishes the first permanent non-Native settlement at   Three Saints Bay, Kodiak.
  1861 - Gold is discovered on the Stikine River near Telegraph Creek.
  1867 – The United States purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, less than 2 cents/acre.
  1897 – The Klondike gold rush starts and continues to 1900.
  1942 – Japan bombs Dutch Harbor and invades the Aleutian Islands.
  1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline completed from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.
  1992 – 50th anniversary of the Alaska Highway.

  As I sat looking out the window recently, trying to think of something exciting to do to reduce my boredom I thought about how the month of January is kind of anti-climactic for me and I guess for a lot of others too. By “anti-climactic” I mean that since October I had been on the move. Hunting here, going there, enjoying the holidays and then at the stroke of midnight on December 31 it all came to an end. My hunting season was over. The holidays were over. It was too cold to fish. Too miserable to work outside, etc., etc... The only thing I had to look forward to was putting away the Christmas decorations. Whoopee!

  As I continued to stare at the cold, dull world outside my window I thought about the deer hunting season I had had and how it all began in October with my annual trip to Oklahoma for their muzzleloader season.

  I was really excited about that trip as I had planned to set up my ladder stand down in an area I called Cripple Creek. I had changed it from Cedar Creek some years ago after I had crippled a couple of deer in back to back seasons in the spot. The boys had nicknamed me The Crippler after that so I had to change the name. It had been a couple of years since I had hunted the area and was now laying claim to it.

  With some help from my buddy Robert, we moved my stand from another area down to Cripple Creek and after checking the scope on my new CVA Accura V-2 rifle I was all set for opening morning.

  Early opening morning I watched as a button buck paraded by at thirty five yards. A little while later I heard some noise behind me in the woods. By the sound of it, there were several deer coming my way and they would come out into the open just to my right. The dense cedar trees kept them hidden from my sight so I could only guess at how many and what sex they were.

  I heard them stop just shy of the field. I imagined they were standing there looking into the open to see if the coast was clear. I’ll never know what happened but suddenly they snorted, wheezed and busted back the way they had come. I couldn’t see them so I assumed they couldn’t see me so why they busted is a mystery. Oh well it was still early on opening day!

  A little while later I saw some movement out to my right, in the same direction the button buck had come from earlier. About the same time I determined it wasn’t it deer it stepped out into the open. It was the biggest bobcat I had ever seen! It came straight across the narrow field giving me an excellent view of it. It never acknowledged my presence and walked straight into the woods almost in the same spot the deer busted from earlier. As always, I didn’t have my camera out!

  The next day I made an error that cost me a deer.

  Ever since I had bought my new rifle I had used CCI brand primers with my loads. That morning for some reason I grabbed some Winchester primers that are supposedly made and matched for Triple-7 powder. I figured new gun, match the primers and powder and I’d have a killer combo. Right? Wrong!

  These were the same primers I was using the previous year when I had a misfire and it cost me a big doe. The same thing happened the evening of the second day.

  I watched as big momma doe and her fawn walked into the feeder. Momma stood guard as the youngster filled its belly. I waited for a good broadside shot and when she presented me one at thirty yards I pulled the trigger. The result was not really a misfire but a delay-fire. The doe ran off with no sign of being hit. I looked for the longest time for any indication of a hit. I was able to catch up to David’s brother Ronnie driving his Rhino and had him come back and help me look. No luck. The score was 0 – 1.

  I don’t think the brand of primers is bad as I had used Winchesters back before they came out with the Triple-7 tie-in. I just think it’s a bad batch of primers. Needless to say the only thing I now use them for is to clear the nipple when first loading up after a cleaning.

  It was just getting light the next morning as I saw two does walk in from the left to the feeder. It was too early to shoot so I watched them for over thirty minutes as it got lighter. The fog kept things darkened longer than usual and since they had no idea I was there, there was no reason to rush and make a poor shot.

  Finally the bigger of the two walked out about thirty yards, almost in the same spot as the doe I had shot at the evening before. The shot was perfectly placed as new Nikon scope was dead on! She stumbled, regained her footing and sprinted the ten yards or so to the creek, crossed it and started up the hill on the other side before succumbing to the 245 grain Powerbelt bullet. Yeah baby!

  It had been two years since I had scored in Oklahoma and the joy at putting some fresh meat in the freezer was great! I received high-fives and handshakes back at camp. Little did I know the score wouldn’t stay 1 –1. Since I only had a buck tag left to fill, David let me have one his DMAP tags which allow a land owner to harvest more does on his land to help keep the herd balanced. Several of the boys had used them in years past but this was my first opportunity to try and fill one.

  Two days later on Wednesday evening a doe came in to the feeder from the left. I watched her for quite a while waiting for a clean shot. It was getting closer to dark as I watched and waited for her to turn broadside. I was contemplating a neck shot when she finally started toward me. The course she was on would bring her directly in front of me but she turned instead to her right offering me a clear shot and I took it.

  I heard her run into the woods snapping and crunching brush and sticks before crashing to a halt. I couldn’t see her because of the thick cedars behind the stand but knew she was down. If I wanted the search to be easy I knew I had to find her quick.

  A lot of the area behind the stand is really thick with brush and I hoped she wasn’t in it. After searching the more open areas I knew she had to be in the thick stuff. I propped my gun against a fallen tree spanning a draw so it could be found easily and started into the brush.

  It wasn’t long before I spotted her, right in the middle of some thick brush and saplings. Getting to her was a chore and getting her out was even worse. The only thing I could do was put my head down and plow head-on through the thicket into the open. Making it out of that mess I still had to get her out to the field. With my gun slung on my back I picked and plowed my way out into the open.

  No high-fives this time back at camp. Everyone but David had left that morning and he was out visiting relatives that evening. I skinned and quartered her in the drizzling rain but that was a good problem! Score now, 2 -1.

  The next morning it was raining harder so I slept in. Around nine David showed up in the pouring rain. He had promised Brentt that he would put a new battery in his trail camera before he headed home and he’s a man of his word. Standing around chatting, David told me before I left the next day to place the unused DMAP tag in his cooler he was leaving and slide it under Robert’s camper. I told him I couldn’t do that as I had filled it the previous evening. I think he was as happy as I was on filling the tag.

  David told me that if it was raining that afternoon I could go down in the valley and hunt out of his ground blind he had setup by his ladder stand. I was excited about that opportunity as he had captured some nice bucks on his trail camera down there.

  After he headed for home I passed the rest of the morning and early afternoon the best I could by reading, cleaning my gun and doing a bunch of small tasks in preparation of departing the next day. Around four o’clock I headed to the blind.

  It quit raining long enough for me to get there but started again shortly after arriving. I was glad to be in the relative dryness of the blind instead of sitting in a stand. The rain went back and forth from heavy to light the next two hours as I tried to stay awake.

  Around six, I figured the deer weren’t going to show as they were bedded down waiting for the rain to quit later that night and that I might as well leave at six thirty even though I would have had another twenty minutes or more of shooting time. And besides, I already had two deer in the cooler.

  I started packing up my stuff at six thirty. I was actually looking forward to getting out of the blind as I felt like I had been sitting inside of a drum for the past two hours.

  After slipping on my rain jacket I decided to have one more look outside to make sure the coast was clear. I bent over and looked out the window and my heart kicked into overdrive. There, approaching from the creek on the other side of the feeder was a deer, a buck!

  I struggled to get back onto my chair and get it into position for a shot while trying to stay quiet. The buck stood there nibbling on some corn while I tried my best to get a good look at him in the waning light. He turned his head a couple of times and I could make out some tall tines. Hunters in similar situations always describe it as waiting an eternity when it was only a minute or so as I waited for a clean shot. He finally turned enough for a good shot and thinking it was now or never I put the crosshairs on the sweet spot and pulled the trigger.

  In the semi-darkened valley the flames erupting from the barrel lite up the area! I was lucky that the breeze instantly blew the smoke clear so I could see the buck stumble then regain his footing and take off back across the creek. With the sound of the rain falling everywhere I strained to hear if he crashed on the other side or not.

  And then it hit me on what I had just done. I had just shot my third deer of the trip and a buck at that. My first Oklahoma buck! I was shaking so bad while reloading I dropped one of the Pyrodex pellets. Instead of searching for it I simply grabbed another speed-loader and willing myself to calm down, reloaded the gun. It was getting dark fast and I knew I had to find him soon so I took off on the search.

  I stumbled down the bank of the creek and clawed myself up the other side. Standing up I panned my flashlight around the area, nothing. I walked and looked around for five minutes or so determined that I would find the buck no matter how long it took, rain be damned.

  After several minutes my light picked up something kind of white in color. The area is littered with rocks and boulders that are an off-white color so I wasn’t quite sure what I was seeing. Walking closer I realized I was looking at his belly. He was down and out! Score now was 3 - 1!

  As I always do, I said a prayer of thanks to God for this bounty and for one of the best hunting trips ever and prayed that he would give me a safe journey home the next day.

  The buck wasn’t as big as I had thought; he was a tall tined six pointer. The massive body they were attached to told me this was a mature buck. My thoughts were confirmed a few days later when I e-mailed David about my success. He had seen the buck from pictures taken by his trail cam and agreed that the buck was as big as he’d ever get and that it was great that I had taken him out of the herd.

  The creek bank was six or seven feet high in that area and slicked down from the rain so getting him across was going to be hard. There weren’t any easier places to cross so I grabbed him by an antler and pulled and clawed with all of my might using what saplings and brush there was as hand-holds got him to the other side. Job one was over. I still had to get him loaded onto the four-wheeler, check him in and get him back to camp. Back at camp I cleaned him the rain like the doe the previous evening. But as always, that was a good problem.

  It was a jubilant ride home the next day as memories of a fantastic hunt flowed through my head. The finale to a great trip was listening to the radio as the Cardinals won the World Series.

  What a great start to the hunting season! I wasn’t sure how or if it could get any better. You’ll have to wait for part two of the story to find out. Until then keep your powder dry. Jim Bob