Due to the uncontrolled spread of deadly white-nose syndrome among bats, the U.S. Forest Service has closed all caves and mines on national forests in the East, including five small unnamed caves in the Allegheny National Forest.

The closures will give scientists time to study the white-nose fungus and learn more about how it is spread and what can be done to stop it. One concern is that human visitors to caves could inadvertently spread the fungus or wake hibernating bats.

An estimated 500,000 bats in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states have died due to the fungus, including almost 25,000 endangered Indiana bats, which can be found in the Allegheny National Forest. The syndrome is named for the white fungus that appears on the faces, ears, wings and feet of hibernating bats, which causes affected bats to come out of hibernation early and severely underweight, often starving, before the insects on which they feed emerge.

Once a colony is infected the fungus spreads rapidly and can kill 90 percent of bats within a cave.