Bats of the Colorado oil shale region

Open-File Report, 2015

The last six books of the Colorado Plateau series from which abstracts and introductory materials included in this compilation were published by the University of Arizona (UA) Press. The full articles and introductory text from the UA Press publications are copyrighted and thus cannot be provided herein. The UA Press has granted the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) permission to reproduce the abstracts and introductory materials as they were submitted. Abstracts authored entirely by non-USGS authors do not represent the views or position of the USGS or the U.S. Government and are published solely as part of this volume.

aBStract Published information on bat species presence in many parts of Montana is limited. Our study was initiated to gather data on the distribution of bat species found in the southwestern part of the state. We captured 106 individuals of eight bat species in mist-nets at 15 water sources in southwestern Montana during July through August 2003-2006. The western long-eared myotis (Myotis evotis) was the most frequently captured species and detected at over half the sites surveyed. Other common species captured across numerous sites included little brown myotis (M. lucifugus), hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus), and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). These species are apparently broadly distributed throughout southwestern Montana, occurring in a variety of habitat types. Our study provides some much needed baseline data on bat distribution in southwestern Montana.

2019

We surveyed bats at 49 sites in the Loess Hills Ecoregion of southeastern Nebraska, along the western edge of the eastern forest biome in eastern Richardson, Nemaha, and Otoe counties. We completed this study shortly before the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) was listed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act. The expectation of listing, along with potential presence of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), motivated the study. We captured 183 bats of five species: eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) (n = 103; 56 %), big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) (n = 47; 26 %), evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis) (n = 27; 15 %), hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) (n = 4; 2 %), and northern long-eared bat (n = 2; 1 %). The mean catch per net site was 3.7 bats (SD = 4.8). The Eastern red bat was captured most commonly and at the most sites. We established the first record of this species from Nemaha County, with reproduction documented in all three counties. More reproductive female red bats were captured than adult males. Big brown bat captures consisted of approximately equal proportions adult males, reproductive females, and volant young of year. We established the first records for big brown bat reproduction in Otoe and Nemaha counties. Only reproductive female and juvenile evening bats were captured, with geographic and reproductive records established for all three counties. Captures of the hoary bat, a lactating female at one site and two juveniles at another, represented a Nemaha County geographic and reproductive record. We radio-tagged a non-reproductive female and an adult male northern long-eared bat from Otoe County and tracked them to roosts along the Missouri River, 3.43 and 2.03 km from the net site, respectively. We completed four emergence counts at each roost, with each bat exiting its respective roost on only one evening and neither bat visiting the other roost. We never documented more than three individuals exiting each roost on a given night. Overall, this study documented relatively low abundance, species richness, and species diversity when compared to studies in the eastern United States.

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist, 2013

2006

Rosebud. Stormy weather dampened the potential results, but new distribution data were gathered nevertheless. Scott Blum, assistant biologist at the Montana Natural Heritage Program, entered survey data into the Point Observation Database (POD), facilitating the production of new distribution maps and the updating of element occurrence data in the Montana Natural Heritage Program's Biotics database.

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist, 2008

Western North American Naturalist, 2016

The composition of the bat communities of many public lands remains poorly understood. Historically, inventory and management for bats on most national wildlife refuges was a lower priority than for other species, but in recent decades there has been increasing concern for bat conservation. Calls have been issued for greater management for bats throughout the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) refuge system (Dixon et al. 2013). A first step in addressing these concerns is to gain basic knowledge about the species of bats present on each refuge. We conducted a survey of the bats of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR), Lincoln and Clark counties, Nevada, in 2008-2014. DNWR is the largest

1994

Eighteen species of bats in the families Vespertilionidae and Molossidae are documented from Colorado. Accounts of species include information on foraging and roosting habitat, status and abundance, activity patterns, and reproduction. Records of occurrence are mapped based on examination of some 21 10 specimens and review of literature. Summary analyses of population and community ecology, zoogeography, and public health provide a basis for review of conservation and management issues.

1999

Western North American Naturalist, 2000

1995

Eight species of vespenilionid bats were identified during field surveys on the Sioux District. Custer National Forest in June and September 1994. Most of the 18 sites surveyed were associated with water (springs, reservoirs, beaver ponds, stock ponds). Species identified were long-eared myotis (Myotis evo(is), western small-footed myotis (M. ciliolabrum) , long-legged myotis (M. volans), fringed myotis (M. thysanodes), silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans), big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) , hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), and Townsend's big-eared bat (Plecotus townsendii). The literature on the bat fauna of the Sioux District includes one species not detected in 1994, little brown myotis {Myotis lucifugus) (Andersen and Jones 1971, Jones et al. 1973). Most Myotis species cannot be distinguished with bat detectors (the primary survey tool in 1994), so M. lucifugus may actually have been present (unidentified Myotis species were detected at nine sites). M. thysanodes (an adult non-lactating female), caught in a mist net in the Slim Buttes, is a new species recorded for the area. Current lists include 2 bat species from Chalk Buttes, 7 species from Ekalaka Hills, 8 species from the Long Pines, 6 necies from North Cave Hills, 3 species from South Cave Hills, and 9 species from Slim Buttes; no survey work was conducted in Chalk Buttes in 1994. Only the list from Slim Buttes includes all species known to occur on Sioux District lands. Only Eptesicus fuscus has been recorded from each of the six main units of the Sioux District; with the exception of M. thysanodes, all other species have been detected on at least three of the six units. Seven species are known to breed on the Sioux District, based on males with enlarged testes, Iactating females, or females with embryos. One other species (Plecotus townsendii) was present at sites in the Ekalaka Hills, Long Pines, North Cave Hills, and Slim Buttes during the breeding season, is known to breed in the Black Hills to the south, and probably breeds in the area. Only M. thysanodes, which also breeds in the Black Hills, is of uncertain status on the Sioux District at this time. Currently, nothing is known about which species overwinter on the Sioux District.

Western North American Naturalist, 2020

The known distributions of eastern red bats and western red bats in western North America have changed greatly over the past 2 decades, resulting in inaccurate range maps and uncertainty regarding the presence or probable absence of these species within states and provinces. We obtained capture and specimen records from the western United States and Canada for 276 eastern red bats and for 863 western red bats. We documented the expansion of the range of eastern red bats in northwestern Canada and clarified the northern and eastern limits of western red bat distribution in the United States. We found that the eastern red bat and western red bat exhibit a mostly allopatric distribution, with western red bats mainly inhabiting warmer, drier forested ecoregions at lower latitudes than those inhabited by eastern red bats. A small zone of overlap between the species was identified only in far western Texas, although it is possible that sympatry may be more widespread due to errors on museum specimen labels and misidentification of captured red bats.