Bats

Parks where protocol will be implemented

• City of Rocks National Reserve
• Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve
• John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Importance / Issues

• Bats are continually recognized as important components of regional mammalian diversity, are crucial providers of important ecosystem services, and have an uncertain conservation status.
• Bats exhibit high fidelity to foraging and roosting sites and extreme longevity, making them well-suited fauna for long-term monitoring (Fenton 2003).
• Riparian corridors provide critical foraging and commuting habitat for all 14 bat species in the Network and as many as half of these species are listed as federal and/or state species of concern.
• Changes in bat species presence and activity patterns at monitoring sites in the Network will serve as good indicators of environmental change and riparian/aquatic focal system integrity.
• Also, maternity roosts of the Townsend's big-eared bat and pallid bat, both sensitive colonial species, are located in cliffs and caves that experience heavy visitation. Monitoring of these sites over time will provide invaluable information to managers about visitor impacts on these resource areas.

Preliminary Monitoring Objectives

• Estimate trends in the occupancy dynamics of individual bat species during summer pup-rearing in riparian areas.
• Estimate trends in Townsend's big-eared bat occupancy and abundance in lava tubes of Craters of the Moon's north caves complex during summer pup-rearing.

Potential Measures

Riparian occupancy and detectability, local extinction and colonization rates, and cave occupancy and abundance (roost exit counts).

Management Applications

Information gathered from this monitoring will be used to:

• Identify critical seasonal use patterns to inform management decisions concerning visitor use.
• Inform regional assessments of sensitive species status.
• Identify priority riparian restoration areas.
• Improve our understanding of park aquatic and riparian health.

Protocol Development & Status

A draft bat acoustic monitoring protocol will be ready for external peer review in 2010.

Contact Information

Tom Rodhouse
Upper Columbia Basin Network Ecologist
National Park Service
2600 NW College Way - Ponderosa Bldg.
Bend, OR 97701
Email

Document Links

• Protocol Development Summary

References

Rodhouse, T.J., S.A. Scott, P.C. Ormsbee, J. Zinck. 2008. Field identification of Myotis yumanensis and M. lucifugus: a morphological evaluation. Western North American Naturalist 68(4): 437-443.

Weller, T.J., S.A. Scott, T.J. Rodhouse, P.C. Ormsbee, and J. Zinck. 2007. Field identification of the cryptic vespertilionid bats, Myotis lucifugus and M. yumanensis. Acta Chiropterologica 9(1):133-147.

Rodhouse, T.J., M.F. McCaffrey, and R.G. Wright. 2005. Distribution, foraging behavior, and capture results of the spotted bat in central Oregon. Western North American Naturalist 65(2):215-222.

Fenton, M.B. 2003. Science and the conservation of bats: where to next? Wildlife Society Bulletin 31:6-15.