BAT RESEARCH NEWS VOLUME 44:No. I SPRING 2OO3 BAT RESEARCH NEWS Volume 44: Numbers 1–4 2003 Original Issues Compiled by Dr. G. Roy Horst, Publisher and Managing Editor of Bat Research News, 2003. Copyright 2011 Bat Research News. All rights reserved. This material is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced, transmitted, posted on a Web site or a listserve, or disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the Publisher, Dr. Margaret A. Griffiths. The material is for individual use only. Bat Research News is ISSN # 0005-6227. BAT RESEARCH NEWS Table of Contents for Volume 44, 2003 Volume 44: Number 1, Spring 2003 i Volume 44: Number 2, Summer 2003 ii Volume 44: Number 3, Fall 2003 iii Volume 44: Number 4, Winter 2003 iv BAT RESEARCH NEWS Volume 44: No. 1 Spring 2003 Publisher and Managing Editor: G. Roy Horst, Bat ResearchNews, P. O. Box 5068, Potsdanr, NY. 13676-5068U.S.A., Tel. 315-267-22s9 FAX 315-267-3170 e'mail: [email protected] Editor for f,'eafure Articles: Allen Kurt4 Dept. of Biology, EasternMichigan University, Ypsilanti, MI. 48197. TeL734487-1174 Fl.X 734-487-923s e-mail: [email protected] Editor for Recent Literature: Thomas A. Griffiths, Dept. of Biology, Illinois Wesleyan University, BloomingtortlL 61702 Tel. 309- 556-3697, FAX 309-556-3864 e-mail: [email protected] Editor for Conservation/Education: Patricia Morton, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Suite 100, 3000 IH 35 South, Austin, TX 78704.Tel. 512-912-7020 e-mail: [email protected] Bat ResearchNews is publishedfour times eachyear, consistingof one volume of four issues.Bat ResearchNews publishesshort featurearticles, and generalinterest notes which are reviewedby at leasttwo scholarsin that field. In additionBat ResearchNews includesa recentliterature section which cites nearlyall bat-relatedpublications in English worldwide; the abstractsof presentationsat bat conferencesaround the world, lettersto the Editors;news zubmitted by our readers,notices and requests, and announcements of fuUrre bat conferencesworldwide. Communicationsconcerning feature articles and "lettersto the Editor" shouldbe addressedto Kurta, recentliterature items to Griffiths, conservationitems to Morton,and all ofier correspondenceto Horst" The pricesfor onevolume year are. 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Bat ResearchNews is ISSN# 0005-6227, Bat ResearchNews is printedand mailed at the StateUniversity of New York-Potsdam,Potsdam, New York 13676U.S.A., andis copyrightedto G. Roy Horst,Publisher Copyright 2003 Bat Research News. All rights reserved. All material in this issue is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced, transmitted, posted on a Web site or a listserve, or disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the Publisher, Dr. Margaret A. Griffiths. The material in this volume is for individual use only. BAT RESEARCI{ I{EWS VOLUME 44:No. I SPRTNG 2OO3 Table of Contents Contentsand Editor's Comments. High Altitude Collision betweenAirplane and Hoary Bat SuzannePeurach Lettersto the Rlitor Abstractsfrom RecentConferences : BatConservafionTrust of United Kingdorn, ReadingU.K., Sept. 6-8,2002 . , . 5 SoutheastemBatDiversityNetwork,Starkville, MS, Feb.20-21,2003........ 17 Notes 31 Program of Mexican Mammal Society Conference J.] RecentLiterature 36 Announcements 45 News ., . 46 FutureMeetings and Events 48 Editors' Comments BRN now includes on its web site a portable data file (PDF) which will enable electronic viewers to see each issue exactly as it appears in the printed version. This rvill make it much easier to copy for your records and easier to cite articles by page number and issue number. Each new electronic issue will be added to the back issues section already included on the electronic site. We are making a very strong appeal to subscribersoutside the United States(and those in the U.S. who choose)to convert to the elecfronic edition. This will help keep the cost of your subscription to Bat ResearchNews affordable, hopefully at our current intemational rate of $15.00 per volume year worldwide, for severalyears in the futwe. If you have any comrnents or suggestionsregarding this new arrangementplease forward them to us, and send us some news. Thank you. Roy Horst, Managing Editor and Publisher horstgr(@pelsdam.edu Pat Morton. Editor. Conseryation.Education patricia.morton@pwd. rx us Tom andMargaret Griffiths, Editors, RecentLiterature tgriff@)titan.iwu.edu Allen Kurta, Editor,Feature Articles & Letters bio [email protected] Front cover The illustration of Ametrida centurlo was generouslyprovided by Fiona Reid and is taken from her book "A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico". r 2 Bat Research News Volume 44: No. 1 High-altitude Collision between an Airplane and a Hoary Bat, Lasiurus cinereus Suzanne C. Peurach U.S.G.S Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, National Museum of Natural History, NHB 378, MRC 111, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012 On 9 October 2001, a U.S. Air Force T-37-B jet sustained a wildlife strike during a night flight (2030 hours) over Lawton, Oklahoma. The pilot and a student in the aircraft heard and felt the strike at an altitude of 2,438 meters (8,000 feet) above ground level and immediately recorded the time and location (U.S. Air Force strike number 50313). The strike occurred on the leading edge of the aircraft engine near the intake (B. S. Bowman, pers. comm.). The remains of the animal were recovered from the outside of the aircraft upon landing and initially sent to the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Division of Birds, for identification. The sample, which consisted of a large section of skin with attached fur, eventually was transferred to the U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Biological Survey Unit, Division of Mammals, for identification. The alternating banding pattern visible to the naked eye and the frosted tips of the hairs indicated that this bat was a species of Lasiurus, and most likely a hoary bat (L. Cinereus. To identify the sample to the level of species, I prepared a slide of the hair according to techniques described for feathers by Laybourne and Dove (1994) and compared the hairs with a reference collection housed in the Division of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History. Samples were examined at low (100-x), medium (200-x) and high (400-x) power on a Zeiss comparison light microscope. Measurements were taken using an ocular micrometer. The sample was compared macroscopically, as well as microscopically, with samples from species of Lasiurus that occur in Oklahoma (Choate and Jones 1998), including the hoary bat, red bat (L. borealis), and Seminole bat (L. seminolus). Comparisons of unknown hair samples can be difficult when the region of the body that a sample came from is unknown. For bats, however, the form and scale pattern of hairs sampled from different regions of the body, as well as from different sexes, have no marked differences, although color and size of hairs do vary (Benedict, 1957). Under the microscope, scale patterns on hairs from the strike formed a spiral pattern along portions of the shaft, as described for Lasiurus and some species of Myotis and Eptesicus (Nason, 1948). The hairs from the strike showed a banding pattern (dark at the base, followed by a pale band, and then dark distally) that was characteristic of L. cinereus, as described by Moore and Braun (1983). The imbricate crenate scale pattern found at the widest portion of the hair shaft of the unknown sample was a character used by Nason (1948) to distinguish L. cinereus from L. borealis and L. seminolus. The diameter at the widest portion of the hair shaft was reported to be greater than 12.5 microns for L. cinereus and less than 12.5 microns for L. borealis (Moore and Braun, 1983). The diameter of the widest portion of one of the hair shafts found in the wildlife strike was 19 microns. Hairs from voucher specimens of L. seminolus were examined under the microscope and compared to hairs from the strike. The diameter at the widest portion of the hair shaft of L. seminolus was found to be no larger than 12 microns. Hence, the hair sample from the aircraft strike over Oklahoma best matched L. cinereus, according to microscopic characters, macroscopic examination, and geographic distribution. High-altitude flights have been documented for Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis), using visual triangulation (Davis et al. 1962) and radar with associated helicopter visualization to identify the bats (Williams et al.1973). The elevation of Lawton, Oklahoma, is approximately 462 meters and the highest altitude in the state is 1,516 meters at the peak of Black Mesa. Although no records for high-altitude flight were found in the literature for L. cinereus, this flight at 2,438 meters (8,000 feet) above ground level probably represents an altitudinal record for the species. Winter 2003 Bat Research News 3 Acknowledgments Special thanks go to Major B.