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Terrestrial Animal Species in the Hoosier-Shawnee Ecological Assessment Area Clark D. McCreedy, Kelle A. Reynolds, Cynthia M. Basile, Matthew C. Nicholson, Katie M. Dugger, Megan E. Gross, Gary M. Mohr, Jr. About the Authors: Clark D. McCreedy Wildlife Biologist, USDA Forest Service, Hoosier National Forest, Tell City, IN 47586. Phone: 812- 547- 9246; e-mail:About [email protected] the Author: ABSTRACT Kelle A. Reynolds We reviewed the current status of amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and selected Wildlife Biologist, USDA Forest Service, Hoosier National Forest, invertebrates within the Hoosier-Shawnee Ecological Assessment Area. Species select- Bedford, IN 47421. Phone: 812-277- ed for this evaluation included those most commonly considered with respect to land 3574; e-mail: [email protected] management, namely threatened and endangered species, those species with viability Cynthia M. Basile Wildlife Biologist, USDA Forest concerns, the unique community of organisms that use cave and karst habitats, avian Service, Hoosier National Forest, species in general, neotropical migrant land birds in particular, and species within the Tell City, IN 47586. Phone: 812-547- 9229; e-mail: [email protected] assessment area valued as game species. We evaluated a total of 452 species: 158 Matthew C. Nicholson birds, 40 mammals, 23 amphibians, 32 reptiles, and 199 invertebrates. Five species Landscape Ecologist, Atlantic Ecology Division, U.S. Environmental listed as either federally threatened or endangered inhabit, or may inhabit, the assess- Protection Agency, Narragansett, RI ment area. The Hoosier-Shawnee Ecological Assessment Area is particularly notable 02882. Phone: 401-782-9655; e-mail: [email protected] for its rich cave and karst fauna, and for the diversity of its avian inhabitants. Katie M. Dugger Faculty Research Associate, INTRODUCTION throughout these publicly held natural areas. Cooperative Fish and Wildlife The Hoosier-Shawnee Ecological Assessment Population centers adjacent to the assessment Research Unit, Oregon State Area is encompassed by the Central area include St. Louis, Missouri; Indianapolis, University, Corvallis, OR 97331. Phone: 541-737-9317; Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region (BCR24) Indiana; and, Louisville, Kentucky. This cursory e-mail: [email protected] and lies within the Highland Rim and picture of the assessment area suggests both Megan E. Gross Lexington Plain physiographic regions. The the importance and challenge of public land Graduate Student, Cooperative amound of land area held publicly, and the management within the context of regional Wildlife Research Laboratory, importance of these lands for conservation, growth and development, recreational use of Southern Illinois University, have resulted in the designation of 13 interna- public lands, and the subject of this chapter, Carbondale IL 62901. Phone: 618- 536-7766; e-mail: tionally Important Bird Areas (IBAs) within or the conservation of terrestrial wildlife. [email protected] adjacent to the assessment area. In addition to This chapter documents the current status of Gary M. Mohr, Jr a diverse terrestrial fauna, the area supports terrestrial animal species that occur, or are Graduate Student, Cooperative rare plant communities and a cave and karst likely to occur, within the Hoosier-Shawnee Wildlife Research Laboratory, fauna that enlarges with each effort to charac- Southern Illinois University, Ecological Assessment Area. This evaluation terize these species. In contrast, at least with Carbondale IL 62901. Phone: 618- included those amphibians, reptiles, birds, respect to the Hoosier and Shawnee National 536-7766; e-mail: mammals, and selected invertebrates most [email protected] Forests, private lands are widely interspersed commonly considered with respect to land 172 management: namely, threatened and endan- Table 1. Federally listed threatened or endangered terrestrial animal species present in the Hoosier- gered species, those species with viability Shawnee Ecological Assessment Area. concerns, the unique community of organisms Scientific name Common name Status Trend1 that use cave and karst habitats, avian species in general, neotropical migrant land birds in par- Reptiles ticular, and species within the assessment area Sistrurus catenatus catenatus Eastern massasauga Candidate Declining valued as game species. The first section of this Birds report addresses threatened and endangered Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle Threatened Increasing species; the remaining species groups follow in Sterna antillarum athalassos Least tern (interior) Endangered Stable turn. We conclude this evaluation with habitat Mammals suitability analyses of the assessment area for Myotis grisescens Gray myotis Endangered Increasing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), Myotis sodalis Indiana bat Endangered Decreasing northern bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus), and bobcat (Lynx rufus). Invertebrates Nicrophorus americanus American burying beetle Endangered Stable 1 USDI Fish and Wildlife Service (1996). THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES Of the species listed as federally endangered Number of Federally Listed Species within the assessment area (table 1), the 0 Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) is the most broadly Indiana 1-2 distributed; the interior least tern (Sterna antil- 3-4 larum) is likely the most restricted of the endan- gered vertebrates. Of the endangered species within the assessment area, populations of the Illinois gray bat (Myotis grisescens) have demonstrated the greatest degree of stability or recovery. The eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus), a candidate for federal listing, may now be extirpated within the assessment area. The American burying beetle (Nicrophorus Kentucky americanus) currently has no known records of occurrence within the assessment area. In spite of the acknowledged rarity of these species, most counties in the region have some current form of plume hunting, habitat loss due to Figure 1. The distribution record of occurrence of at least one of the five development, and recreational use of gravel of federally threatened or endangered terrestrial federally listed species (fig. 1). bars used as breeding habitats have been princi- animal species by county pal factors contributing to the endangerment of in the assessment area. Federally Endangered Species the interior least tern. Interior least tern Subspecies of the least tern were apparently The interior least tern historically inhabited abundant through the late 1880s but were major Midwest river systems that would have regionally extirpated as a consequence of com- included the Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, mercial plume hunting. The Migratory Bird Mississippi, Red, Rio Grande, and Wabash Treaty Act of 1918 subsequently provided this Rivers. Early commercial exploitation in the and similar species some protection from 173 commercial exploitation. However, the associa- from approximately 160,000 bats in 1960 to an tion of the least tern with dry exposed gravel estimated 173,100 bats in 2001. Over the same bars as nesting habitat, recreational disturbance period, numbers of Indiana bats increased from of these habitats, and the desirability of adjacent an estimated 14,800 to 19,300 in Illinois areas for housing development led to a rapid (Clawson 2002). In the 10 years between 1990 decline of tern populations beginning in the population estimates and 2000/2001 surveys, the 1940s. Susceptibility to predation, river channel- number of hibernating Indiana bats declined ization, irrigation diversion, and the construction from an estimated 78,700 to 47,900 in Kentucky, of dams in the interior United States have also while increasing from 14,900 to 19,300 in contributed to the loss of tern nesting habitat. Illinois, and from 163,500 to 173,100 in Indiana. These most recent trends suggest some degree of The status of the interior least tern is unclear stability of Indiana and Illinois populations. within the assessment area. Kentucky records include Ballard, Carlisle, Fulton, Hickman, Currently, half of all known Indiana bats occu- Livingston, and Union Counties along the Ohio py hibernacula within the State of Indiana. River (Kentucky Department of Fish and Indiana and Kentucky each contain three of the Wildlife Resources 2001a, NatureServe 2002); nine Priority One Hibernacula, which contain in Illinois, terns may be restricted to Alexander, more than 85 percent of the known population Gallatin, Jackson, and Pope Counties (Herkert of Indiana bats. Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky 1992, NatureServe 2002). The single remaining all harbor Priority Two and Priority Three Indiana breeding colony uses the gravel-covered Hibernacula (USDI Fish and Wildlife Service dike of Gibson Lake within the property 1999a; table 2). Priority One Hibernacula sup- boundaries of the Cinergy Corporation’s Gibson port more than 30,000 wintering bats; Priority Generating Station (Indiana Division of Fish Two Hibernacula support between 500 and and Wildlife 2003). 30,000 bats; and, Priority Three Hibernacula support fewer than 500 wintering bats. Indiana bat Indiana bats occur throughout the Midwestern Persecution, intentional and inadvertent and Eastern United States; records of occurrence human disturbance of hibernating bats, and suggest a current distribution encompassing 27 vandalism to caves have all contributed to states. Surveys of hibernacula in 2001 suggest a Indiana bat declines. In Kentucky, the exclusion rangewide population of approximately 380,000