National Park Service Grant: Monitoring Bat Habitat Use at Jewel Cave National Monument

Title: Monitoring Cave and Forest Habitat Use by Bats at Jewel Cave National Monument.

The Recipient is a member of the Great Plains CESU who was awarded a Master Cooperative Agreement P16AC00011 (Master Agreement Number) allowing the University of Wyoming to participate in specific tasks, and can provide the necessary activities involved in this particular task while providing an effective outcome for NPS and the objectives of this research/educational project.

The Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD), University of Wyoming (UW), in partnership with the National Park Service proposes to initiate a study to better understand bats at Jewel Cave National Monument. Specifically, the project plan is to individually mark bats to better understand daily, seasonal, and inter-annual use of Jewel Cave by bats. Additionally, bats will be fitted with radio transmitters in order to identify and characterize summer day roost structures and surrounding habitat.
Project data and findings will be share with the larger scientific community and resource managers through peer reviewed publications and reports outlining results. Outreach materials will be developed to inform visitors to the Monument about bats, WNS, and the how these components relate to the Monument.
Jewel Cave represents the largest known bat hibernacula in the Black Hills, supporting approximately 1,200 bats of seven species on an annual basis. At least three bat species known to hibernate at Jewel Cave are known to be affected by WNS including the Threatened northern long-eared bat and the little brown myotis, which has been petitioned for ESA protections on an emergency basis. Additionally, the Black Hills, including Jewel Cave, are known to support a large and diverse bat population. While the Monument has periodically conducted winter counts of hibernating bats and is now conducting acoustic monitoring to evaluate spring and fall bat activity, such efforts fail to answer important questions with management implications, such as daily and seasonal use of the cave and daytime roosting habitat requirements. The purpose for the proposed project is twofold. First, to better understand the use of habitat by bats in and around the Monument, we will fit bats with radio transmitters, track them to day roost sites, and characterize roost structures and surrounding habitat that may influence roost selection. This will inform management actions such as fuel load reduction projects that may degrade bat roosting habitat. Secondly, we will individually mark each captured bat and quantify movement patterns into and and out of Jewel Cave. This will allow us to understand daily and seasonal use patterns as well estimate vital rates.