Bats | ErrorZap

Cutaway illustration of hibernating bats roosting in a cave, with a bearded host wiping his boots on a decontamination mat outside a locked gate.

Bats, White-Nose Syndrome, and Why Grand Canyon Caves Stay Shut

A cold-loving fungus that has killed millions of bats nationally was confirmed in Arizona in 2025, and Grand Canyon’s caves are built to keep it out.

Cutaway illustration of Cave of the Domes inside Horseshoe Mesa with a locked gate at the entrance and hibernating bats on the ceiling

Cave of the Domes: the last open cave, and why bats closed it

The one Grand Canyon cave you didn’t need a permit for survived a hantavirus scare but not white-nose syndrome.

Illustrated cutaway of fictional limestone caverns showing fossils, bats and researchers surveying passages without a real-world map

Grand Canyon caves: mapped systems and documented research

Rampart’s Ice Age fossils, Stanton’s collections, growing Leandras and Double Bopper surveys, and what cave biology and park rules actually establish.

Labeled cutaway cross-section of a canyon cliff showing a breccia pipe: an ancient collapsed cave on one side filling with ore, a modern mine shaft cut into it on the other, with the host examining both halves.

Grand Canyon Underground: How Caves, Mines and Bats Connect

Karst geology links the park’s caves and its uranium mines directly: many ore-bearing breccia pipes are collapsed ancient caves, excavated twice over.