Mysterious Rattle-snake killing infection

Illinois: Rare rattlesnakes have been dying from aggressive fungal infections that cause grotesque facial lesions.Once it gets through the skin, it invades muscle and bone. A destructive phenomenon in reptiles.

Since 2008, four confirmed and two probable cases have turned up in a population of eastern massasauga rattlesnakes of about 50 to 60 individuals. (This species of snakes are candidates for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act.) Allender has tried, unsuccessfully, to treat two of these cases, but all have been fatal.

A soil-dwelling fungus, Chrysosporium, appears to be responsible. It is a not-too-distant relative of another soil fungus turned killer. Geomyces destructans was recently confirmed as the cause of white-nose syndrome, which has been decimating bat populations in the eastern U.S. after first being spotted in a cave near Albany, N.Y., in 2006.