Bats of the BLM Billings Field Office in south-central Montana, with emphasis on the Pryor Mountains /

Abstract

all participated in the netting sessions on one or more nights. Dave Worthington shared his file of bats marked in the Pryor Mountains in 1990, and Dennis Flath provided his data for bats captured at Gyp Spring in 1976 and 1978. We extend a special thanks to Bette Lowery for her hospitality and interest in the bats of her ranch, and to Burt Williams for arranging our meeting with Bette. For help in production of this report we thank Amy Pearson (MNHP) for making the map.

Bat surveys on USFS Northern Region land in Montana : 2005 /

“…The summer survey helped fill distribution gaps, produced several new county records (Appendix C), and provided evidence that several species of bats are using landscapes under Northern Region stewardship for reproductive activities, including Townsend's Big-eared Bat on the Townsend RD of the Helena NF. Overall, adult males were captured more often than females where we sampled bats (Table 2), a bias that has been noted elsewhere in Montana (Worthington 1991a, 1991b, Hendricks et al 2000, 2004. It is possible males outnumber females throughout the landscape, but the bias towards males in capture samples could also be a result of differential habitat use by the sexes (Bogan et al 1996, Cryan et al 2000 or differences in capture probabilities.…”

“…Knowledge of bats in Montana remains largely based on distribution records (e.g., Nicholson 1950, Hoffmann et al 1969, Swenson 1970, Swenson and Bent 1977, Swenson and Shanks 1979, Shryer and Flath 1980, Foresman 2001, although there are a few published studies focusing on other aspects of the biology of Montana bats (e.g., Jones et al 1973, Hendricks et al 2000. In addition, several agencyfunded projects have addressed information gaps that help guide management activities at the BLM Field Office or USFS Ranger District landscape scale (e.g., Worthington 1991a, 1991b, Hendricks and Kampwerth 2001, Hendricks et al 2004, 2005. Nevertheless, there are no studies from Montana addressing how bats use forested landscapes of different stand types, ages, and structural complexity (e.g., Thomas 1988, Kalcounis et al 1999.…”

“…For example, the little data available from Montana on foraging and diet of bats have been obtained largely at water sources (Jones et al 1973), with no knowledge of where the foraging bats are roosting. Conversely, studies of bat roosts in Montana (e.g., Worthington 1991a, 1991b, Hendricks et al 2000, 2004 lack information on where and how far the roost members go to feed and drink. Nor have patterns of roost selection and fidelity (e.g., Sherwin et al 2003) been studied in Montana, even though it is understood that suitable summer and winter roosts may limit the local and regional distribution and abundance of many temperate-zone bats (Humphrey 1975, Dobkin et al 1995, especially cave-and crevicedwelling taxa.…”

“…Sites may be used only during specific seasons of the year, and then for different purposes. Recent research on bat roosts in Montana has followed the national pattern of inventorying and monitoring roosts in caves and abandoned mines (e.g., Worthington 1991a, 1991b, Hendricks et al 2000, 2004Hendricks and Kampwerth 2001), and this remains an important activity for a state bat conservation plan. Nevertheless, sampling bats across the landscape at foraging sites continues to be critical for filling gaps in documented distribution, assessing relative abundance of local populations, and ultimately identifying roosts for these populations.…”

Status of the Western Small-footed Bat (Myotis ciliolabrum) in Alberta /

“…Bogan et al 1996; Cryan et al 2000;Hendricks et al 2004;Hendricks and Maxell 2005). In Montana, just across the Alberta border on the Milk River near Havre, the ratio of males: females was 59:2, despite great effort to find females (C.Lausen, unpubl.…”