Indiana Bat: Had a good lookin’ momma
We’re talking about the Indiana Bat, this little guy is commonly mistaken for the little brown bat and is one of 2 endangered bats we have here in the state of Tennessee. The other being the gray bat. Another cutie that strikes terror in the heart of… never-mind.
History and Environment:
The Indiana bat is an adorable little bat species belonging to the genus Myotis has a rather sad history. First listed endangered in 1967, they haven’t really recovered since. Their numbers continuously dwindle as humans raid their hibernacula and kill off entire populations in one go. Between this and White Nose Syndrome their history is nothing but death… WNS is the largest killer of these guys. Sadly there is no cure and we really don’t know how to prevent it either.
The Indiana bats do have a large range, but sadly their winter roosts… well I’ll get into that later. They need large, cool caves, usually limestone caves or abandoned mines, to winter in. They group up and will often move around to find the perfect winter habitat. On occasion they will rotate between winter roosts, but this is rare. They spend their active months living in hardwood or hardwood-pine forests, making their roosts in the exfoliating bark of dead or nearly dead trees.
Females give birth under the bark or in the hollows of these trees. Their favorite roosts have direct sunlight. Their maternity roosts usually include a riparian area, yes the same area that the black side dace require. I’m bringing it back around. They are also found in bottom lands, flood plains, and wooded wetlands and uplands.
These little guys need semi-open to closed forest with an open understory for foraging. They prefer to forage near the forest edges and in the riparian areas. Males have a much wider range than the females do.If you want to see these little flying cuties the best place is is cave entrances in early August to late October, but please do not disturb them. Just enjoy them.
And Then Humans:
As I mentioned earlier we are raiding their hibernaculum and killing them. For those who don’t know a hibernacula is a place where bats congregate in the winter to hibernate. So when people raid these places they aren’t just killing a few hundred bats. They are killing thousands of bats and harming those that get away as they have to use precious energy stored up for winter to find somewhere to hibernate. This is the kind of behavior that stains humanity’s name. We need to do better.
The Indiana Bat has a large range but the real danger to them is the lack of winter roosts. Caves are being blocked off to prevent humans from entering which is great for safety and for the protection of the critters that need these caves, BUT unfortunately the entrances aren’t always blocked in the proper way. There are bat friendly, as well as critter friendly, ways to prevent humans from entering, however they are usually more expensive and not everyone wants put the needed money into closing off a cave or mine. Even when the gates are done correctly they still face various threats during hibernation from spelunkers that wake the bats causing them to use precious energy stores as was just pointed out. Also people enter the hibernaaculum just to kill these fellers.
One thing I found that kills these bats that I was not expecting is wind turbines. 64 bats are killed per turbine per year. Other threats are pesticides and agricultural developments. There was even an injunction placed on a West Virginia wind far due to the number of bats killed. We have a ways to go to protect these little guys and gals but we can do it.
Current Status:
They aren’t doing great. They are part of the 40% of bat species that are endangered and we aren’t doing anything to stop it. The thing is we don’t need to do much to prevent the decline of this species. Proper installation of bat gates and preservation of the caves and abandoned mines to make sure they have proper winter roosts. Stiffer penalties for killing them would go a long way as well. We can’t prevent everything but we can do our part. The easiest thing is to report any suspicious behavior you see.
Oops! I Can Fix That!
Well one thing we can do is STOP. KILLING. THEM. They contribute massively to pest control and are good for the environment. We have no good reason to be killing off this adorable bat. We can also continue develop the cure for white nose syndrome which will save millions of bats all together.
I already mentioned what we can do to stop the decline of these guys. Like I said it doesn’t take much. Really if we just stop completely blocking off caves and mines and stop killing bats because some of them may carry rabies they could get off of the endangered list.
Sum It Up Buttercup
It’s clear the Indiana bat needs our help, the good thing is we don’t have to do much to help them. All we have to do really is stop killing them and disrupting their roost. However with the rising issue of WNS there’s still plenty of workload to do. IF we rally like we have for so many other animals then I know we can save this bat.