Eastern Rare Bats
Conservation Issue
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| A gatehouse on the Historical Entrance to saltpeter Cave at carter Caves State Resort Park, KY – after BCI replaced the former vertical ‘jail bars’ with modern and bat-friendly angle iron gate bars. |
Among the 18 species of bats that inhabit eastern North America during part of the year, two species and two subspecies are federally listed as Endangered.
The population status of eight other species is considered ‘undetermined,’ because they are difficult to monitor.
And all of these bats face conflicts with humans as their forest habitats are increasingly altered, along with such new dangers as increasing numbers of wind turbines and the spread of White-nose Syndrome.
A GateKeeper beam-break array from inside Wyandotte Cave, Crawford County, Indiana, with the cave entrance in the background
The four Endangered species and subspecies make seasonal use of caves and abandoned mines, which are also facing human impacts.
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