) ~ .:. .,.. ::. ."\ .. ~:~.'.. ' \ ,.' . ~ \~~ ; ~ \ :K 36 J 92875 ~/~ This is the c~pleted IndiaRa Bat Recovery Plan. It has been approved by the. U. S Fish and Wildlife Service. It does not necessarily represent official positions or approvals of cooperating agencie8 (and it does not necessarily represent the views of aU recovery team aellbers/individuals, who played the key role in pre- paring this plan. ~is plan i8 8ubject to modification as dictated by new findings and changes in 8pecies status and completion of tasks deseribed in the plan. Goals and objectives vi 11 be attained and funds e~nded contingent upon appropriations, priorities, and other budgetary constraints. ACknowledgements should read as follows: The Indiana Bat Recovery Plan, dated October 14.1983, prepared by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation with the Indiana Bat Recovery Team: John T. Brady, Leader (~980-Pre8ent) Indiana Bat Recovery Team U. S. Army Corps of Engineers 210 Tucker Boulevard North St, Louis, Missouri 63101 Richard K. LaVal, Leader (1979-1980) Apt. 10165 . San Jose, Costa Rica (Formerly vi th the Missouri Department of Conservation) ~O8as H. Kunz, Member Indiana Bat Recovery Team Deparblent of 8i oloqy Boston Uni~r.lty 2 CUIImington Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 Merlin D. Tuttle, Member Indiana Sa t Recovery Team Vertebrate Division, CUrator of Mammals Hi lwaukee Public Museum 800 West Wells Street Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233 Donald E. Nilson, Member Indiana Ba t Recovery Team National Fish' Wildlife Laboratory National Museum of Natural History Washinqton, D.C. 20560 Richard L. Clawson, Member Indiana Bat Recovery Team Missouri Department of Conservation Fish and Wildlife Research Center 1110 College A".nue Columbia, ~ 65201 i - Additional cqpies may be obtained from: Fish and Wildlife Reference Service 1776 E. Jefferson Street 4th Floor Rockville, Maryl'and 20852 800-582-3421 . ~ Approved: J~ t>6put1 Director, U.f. Fish and Wildlife Service 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page No. PREFACE i PART I Description 1 Distribution 1 Life History 1 Habi ta t Requi rements 4 Causes of Decline 5 CUrrent Status of Population and Trends 7 Associations With Other Listed Species 8 Cri tical Habitat for the Indi ana Bat 8 PART II Step-down Outline 10 Recovery Plan Narrative 12 Literature Cited 17 PART III Implementation 21 APPENDICES I. Cave Priority Data 1-1 Acknowledgments 11-1 Cave Management 111-1 Hibernacula by State IV-l v. Fact Sheet on Bats V-l Guidelines for Banding and Census Taking VI-l iii LIST OF FIGURES Piqure No: .!!!!!. Page No. 1. Known and SUspected Range of the Indiana Bat 2 2. MYO~!S ,!odal,i8 cluster 3 3. Warning Sign used ~ the Missouri Department of Conservation 111-5 4. Photo of FeQc. Erected at Norris ~ Cave, Tennessee, by the ~nnessee Valley Authority 111-6 s. Pnoto of Fence Erected at Hambrick Cave, Alabama, by the Tennessee Valley Authority 111-7 6. Photo of Gate Erected at Great Scott Cave by the Hi ssour! Department of Conserva tiOn 111-8 '7 Photo of Gate Erected at Bear Cave by the Missouri Depart.nt of Conservation 111-9 iv LIST OF TABLES Table No. Title - . P!~ N2. 1. Indiana Bat Population 8 2. Priority l.Caves for indiana" Bats' 27 3. Priority 2 Caves for Indi'ana-'Bats 28 Priority 3 Caves for Indiana Bats 31 4.. , .' C S. Priority 4 Caves for Indlana Bats 35 Indiana Bat Caves in Alabama Appendix IV 6 Indiana Bat Caves in Ark~nsas " , 7. 8. Indiana Bat Caves in Georgia:" " 9. Indiana Bat Caves in Illinois " 10. Indiana Bat Caws in Indiana . 11. Indiana Bat Caves in Kentooky . 12. Indiana Bat -Caves in'i4a'ryland" . 13. Indiana Bat Caves in Mississippi " 14. Indiana Bat!Ca'ves in Missouri " Indiana Bat Caves in New' York ., " 15. , 16. Indiana Bat Caves in North carolina " 17. Indiana Bat Caves in Ohio . Indiana' Bat Caves It\' Oklahoma" . 18. .' 19. Indiana Bat Caves -in Penn,sylvariia . 20. Indiana Bat Caves in Tennessee' . 21. Indiana Bat Caves in Virginia . 22. Indiana Bat Caves in West Yirginia . 23. Caves with Both Indiana Bats and . Gray Bats present . v PART I De8cription ~e Indiana bat (MyoUs sodalis) is a medium-sized .-mber of the qenus with a for~arm lenqth of 3S to 41 mm. The head and body lenqth ranqes from 41 to 49 am. This species closely resembles the little brown bat (Myotis lucifuqus), but differs in havinq a keeled calcar. The hind feet of the Indiana bat tend to be smaller and more delicate and hairs on the hind feet tend to be shorter The skull has a small sagittal crest, and the braincase tends to be smaller, lower, and narrower than that of the little brown bat. Appendix V provides a comparison of characteristics useful in identifying Indiana bats from other potentially confusing Myotis. Distribution The Indiana bat is a monotypic species that occupies much of the eastern half of the United States (Fiqure 1). Large hibernating populations are found in Indiana, Missouri, and Kentucky; however, populations and individual records have been reported from Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, MiChigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Some records from areas on the margins of the range may represent occasional wanderers rather than viable populations. Life History The Indiana bat is known primarily from the caves in which it hibernates. Approximately 8S' of the entire known population winters in only seven hibernacula, wi th almost half limi ted to two. Summer nursery colonies have been found beneath loose bark of trees, containing 100 bats or less per colony. Most Indiana bats migrate seasonally between winter and summer roosts. Movement has been recorded between hibernacula in central Kentucky and summer areas in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan (Barbour and Davis, 1969), as well as between hibernacula in southern Missouri and summer areas in northern Missouri and southern Iowa (Myers, 1964; LaVal and LaVal, 1980; Bowles, 1980). On arrival at hibernating caves, swarming occurs. Swarming is described as a phenomenon in which large numbers of bats fly in and out of cave entrances from dusk to dawn, While relatively few roost in the caves during the day. (Cope and Humphrey, 1977). SWarming may continue-for several weeks. Fat supplies are replenished prior to hibernation. In Missouri, Indiana bats tended to hibernate in the same cave in which they swarmed, although elsewhere (i.e., Indiana) swarming has occurred in caves other than where they hibernated (LaVal et al., 1977b). Males tend to 1 "' 1/ ~ ~'""'~ , -~~~ J . ~ ,~.. \ . --, " ,. ~\'\ 0 PRIORITY#1HIBERNACULA '-' - - FIGURE 1 2 r_ain active over a ~onger period of tille .t cave ent~ances during the swarming' period than females (1.aVal and LaVal, 1980). Bats ate and females enter directly into hibernation, sorne as early as Octobe~. Nearly all male. are hibernating by late November. Presumably, adult females store sperm through the winter and bec~e pregnant 8oon after emergence from hibernation. Hall (1962) noted limited Mting activity thr~ghout the winter and in late April a8 the bats :were leaving hibernation. Females emerge in late March or early April, follCNed by males. Most IX>pulations leave by late April, but some males spend the summer in hibernacula. Migration is probably hazardous (Tuttle and Stevenson, 1977), especially in spring when fat reserves and food supplies are low. Consequently, adult mortality may be highest in late March and in April. Females give birth to a single young in June or early July. At that time, they join toget,her in nursery colonies beneath the loose bark of trees. Scattered records indicate that ma'les disperse throughout the range in summer, but little is known of their roosting habits. Known maternity colonies occupy home ranges containing roost sites in riparian habitat. Loyalty for a particular reach of stream has been documented (J.B. Cope, pers. comm.). Recent evidence suggests that colonies may also occur in upland habitat (Bowles, 1981). The young are capable of flight within a month of birth. Flying young have been taken as early as the first week in July in Iowa (Bowles, 1981), but an immature taken from beneath a concrete bridge in Indiana in late July appeared barely able to fly (Mumford and Cope, 1964). They spend the latter part of the summer accumulating fat reserves for fall migration and hibernation. Habi tat Requirements 1. Winter Habitat. Depending on local weather conditions, Indiana bats hibernate from October throuqh April (LaVal et al., 1977bJ Hall, 1962). They require 8pecific roost si tes in caves or aines that have stable temperatures below 10°C, preferably from 4° to 8°C. Only a small percentage of available caves provide for this specialized requirement. Stable low temperatures allow bats to maintain a low rate of metabolism and conserve fat reserves until spring (Humphrey, 1978). Indiana bats usually hibernate in larqe, dense clusters of about 300 bats per square foot (3200/meter2, Fiqure 2) (Engel et al., 1976; Clawson et al., 1980). Relative humidity at roost sites during hibernation is usually above 74\ (Humphrey, 1978; LaVal et al., 1977b; Hall, 1962), althouqh Myers (1964) observed relative humidity as low as 54\. Specific cave confiqura- tions determine temperature and humidity aicroclimates required by these bats (Tuttle and Stevenson, 1978J LaVal and LaVal, 1980). 2. SUmJler Habitat. Little is kn<*n about Indiana bat sum.r habitat. Recent studies indicate that maternity colonies are formed mostly in riparian and floodplain areas of ..all to .dium-sized streams (Humphrey et al., 1977; Cope et al., 1978; Sparling et al., 1979; Gardner and Gardner, 1980). Bats a180 have been found along tree-lined drainage ditches in Illinois (Brack, 1979).