2004 OMSI Bat Research Team summary of findings

Publication Type:

Report

Source:

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry; University of Idaho; and National Park Service, Upper Columbia Basin Network, p.43 [or 44] (2004)

Call Number:

U04OMS01IDUS

Keywords:

Big Brown Bat, Corynorhinus townsendii, Eptesicus fuscus, Fringed Myotis, Hoary Bat, Lasiurus cinereus, Long-eared Myotis, Long-legged Myotis, Myotis ciliolabrum, Myotis evotis, Myotis thysanodes, Myotis volans, Myotis yumanensis, Townsend's Big-Eared Bat, Western Small-footed Myotis, Yuma Myotis

Abstract:

This report summarizes the findings of surveys for bats by the 2004 OMSI Bat Research Team, which included a group of high school science students brought together to study bats in three national monuments in the interior Columbia Basin: Craters of the Moon National Monument (NM) and Preserve, Hagerman Fossil Beds NM, and John Day Fossil Beds NM. The team’s primary objectives included the relocation and assessment of reuse and colony size for pallid bat and Townsend’s big-eared bat maternity colonies previously identified in the John Day Fossil Beds and at Craters of the Moon NM. Primary methods employed by the team included the use of mist nets to capture bats, roost exit counts, and bat echolocation call recording and analysis. One Townsend’s big-eared bat colony was found using the same cluster of lava tube caves as documented during the 1990s. Another lava tube nearby was reconfirmed as an important night roost. Inventory efforts at Craters of the Moon confirmed the presence of two important species of bats: the fringed myotis (Myotis thysanodes) and the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus). At Hagerman Fossil Beds, no bats were captured, but echolocation calls recorded there and near the monument were identified to 8 species of bats, and an additional species, the hoary bat, was tentatively identified. As many as 14 species of bats may occur in all three of these monuments, representing an important and vulnerable component of biodiversity in the Upper Columbia Basin Network. More needs to be done with this group of mammals in the network, but preliminary management recommendations include the closure of roost caves to human entry.

Notes:

ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology: Mammals

Included in our file is a memo from Katie Gillies (IDFG, Upper Snake Region) to Rita Dixon and Charles [Chuck] Harris (22 Dec 2004). In it she mentioned, among other things, that UTMs in the report would be useful to our Idaho Conservation Data Center. She also said that Tom Rodhouse had recently forwarded UTMs on Pond Cave to Chuck.