Distribution and Roost Site Selection of Eastern Small-Footed Bats (Myotis leibii) in Mountains of West-Central Arkansas

Kearny, Valerie M.; Perry, Roger W.; Risch, Thomas S.; Rolland, Virginie

doi:10.1656/058.021.0201

Southeastern Naturalist

2022

DOI: 10.1656/058.021.0201

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Distribution and Roost Site Selection of Eastern Small-Footed Bats (Myotis leibii) in Mountains of West-Central Arkansas

Valerie M. Kearny

Roger W. Perry

Thomas S. Risch

et al.

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Cited by 2 publications

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“…The Eastern Small-footed Bat ( Myotis leibii ) is found in mountainous areas of eastern North American from Ontario southward through the Appalachians and westward to Oklahoma (Best and Jennings 1997). During the summer months, it usually roosts in cliff faces, steep talus slopes, and underneath flat rocks (Johnson and Gates 2008; Whitby et al 2013; Kearny et al 2022), although roosting in buildings and bridges has been observed (MacGregor and Kiser 1998; O'Keefe and LaVoie 2011; Sasse et al 2013). During the winter it hibernates in caves and abandoned mines, often in narrow crevices or sometimes under rocks on the cave floor (Best and Jennings 1997).…”

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Apparent annual survival of female eastern small-footed bats (Myotis leibii) roosting in Arkansas bridges

Sasse,

Perry

2023

Journal of Mammalogy

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The Eastern Small-footed Bat (Myotis leibii) inhabits mountainous areas of the eastern United States and generally roosts in cliff faces and talus slopes. However, the difficulty of accessing these sites has limited research on this species. We studied survival rates of eastern small-footed bats by capturing bats roosting in crevices between sections of concrete guardrails on bridges in the Ozark mountains of northern Arkansas from 2014 to 2021. We accumulated 1,413 bat captures (1,050F; 363M) of 283 individual females and 198 individual males sampled over 8 years and determined apparent annual survival of female bats using Cormack–Jolly–Seber survival models. Only 1 of 30 bats tested positive for the presence of Pseduogymnoascus destructans, a fungus causing white-nose syndrome (WNS) which is responsible for significant declines in populations of some North American bat species, when all maternity colonies were sampled in the spring of 2019. Overall apparent annual survival of all females was 0.643, with first-year juvenile survival of 0.472 and adult (ages 1–6) survival of 0.744, approximately 58% greater than first-year survival. Apparent annual survival did not differ greatly among the sites or among years. We found no significant decline or increase in overall number of bats among all sites during the 8 years of study. Stability in both the number of bats encountered and their survival rates suggests that the impact of WNS on these colonies has been marginal.

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confidence: 99%

Apparent annual survival of female eastern small-footed bats (Myotis leibii) roosting in Arkansas bridges

Sasse,

Perry

2023

Journal of Mammalogy

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Microhabitat of Myotis leibii summer roosts at the southwestern periphery of their range

et al. 2023

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Understanding microhabitat use is needed to make sound conservation decisions for at-risk, patchy-habitat specialists. Rock habitats offer unique microclimatic refugia for wildlife. Eastern Small-footed Bats (Myotis leibii (Audubon and Bachman, 1842)) use rock roosts during the summer, but data on these summer roosts are lacking for this species classified as (critically) imperiled in several US states and Canadian provinces and as globally endangered. Our goal was to characterize the structure and microclimate of M. leibii roosts at the southwestern periphery of their range. We predicted that M. leibii roost temperatures would be warmer and less variable than ambient temperatures and that solitary bats would use horizontal roosts cooler at night, whereas maternity group roosts would be vertical and warmer at night. During summers 2019 and 2020, we recorded physical (e.g., width) and temperature attributes of 58 M. leibii roosts at 16 sites in the Ouachita Mountains. Crevice roosts of M. leibii had narrow dimensions like elsewhere in their range and roost temperatures (measured with iButtons) were warmer and more variable than ambient temperatures. Group roosts were larger and had more stable temperatures than solitary roosts. These findings may be useful for assessing population threats, monitoring roost suitability, identifying roost-rich areas that need protection, and even planning artificial roost structures where natural roosts are limited.

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Distribution and Roost Site Selection of Eastern Small-Footed Bats (Myotis leibii) in Mountains of West-Central Arkansas

Cited by 2 publications

References 43 publications

Apparent annual survival of female eastern small-footed bats (Myotis leibii) roosting in Arkansas bridges

Apparent annual survival of female eastern small-footed bats (Myotis leibii) roosting in Arkansas bridges

Microhabitat of Myotis leibii summer roosts at the southwestern periphery of their range

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