Autumn roosting habitat of male Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis) in a managed forest setting in Kentucky

Abstract

In early October 1996 and in late August and late September 1997, during the autumn pre-hibernation swarming period, a total of 22 male Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis) were captured by the use of a portable harp trap at the entrance to a cave hibernaculum located on the Daniel Boone National Forest in Pulaski County, Kentucky. Each bat was fitted in the field with a lightweight (0.52 g) transmitter (Holohil Systems Ltd, model LB-2) attached between the scapulae with surgical adhesive (Skin-bond), released at the point of capture within 4 hours after being caught, and subsequently tracked daily to roost trees by the use of a three-element Yagi antenna and receiver (Wildlife Materials, Model TRX-1000), during daylight hours, until its transmitter failed or it entered the hibernaculum for the winter. Each roost tree that was used by a transmittered Indiana bat was marked in the field with paint and/or plastic flagging and its location was plotted on a topographic map. Information that was collected for each tree included tree species, condition (live/dead), diameter at breast height (dbh), and (if available) the past management of the stand in which the tree was located. During 1997, percent canopy closure was measured at each roost tree by means of a concave spherical densiometer (Robert E Lemmon Forest Densiometers, Model-C). Habitat use in response to past management was evaluated by: (a) defining the analysis area to include all land (5740 ha) located within the smallest circle that could be drawn, with the bat hibernaculum as the center, that would include all known roost trees (N = 102); (b) determining the relative proportions of each type of managed habitat available to the bats within the analysis area; and (c) comparing habitat use versus availability with respect to past management practices that had taken place within each stand where known roost trees were located. The analysis area as defined above was virtually 100 percent forested, with various oak-pine, oak, yellow pine, and pine-oak forest types on the ridgetops and upper slopes and cove hardwood forest types on the lower slopes and in the stream valleys. Nearly 74 percent (4001 ha) of the analysis area was in public ownership (U. S. Forest Service); the remaining 26 percent (1445 ha) was privately owned. An impounded section of the Cumberland River, forming a 294 ha strip which extended through the northern portion of the circle, was excluded from the analysis.

Parent Publication

• 12th Central Hardwood Forest Conference

Citation

MacGregor, John R.; Kiser, James D.; Gumbert, Mark W.; Reed, Timothy O. 1999. Autumn roosting habitat of male Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis) in a managed forest setting in Kentucky. In: Stringer, Jeffrey W.; Loftis, David L., eds. 1999. Proceedings, 12th central hardwood forest conference; 1999 February 28-March 1-2; Lexington, KY. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-24. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 293.