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Winter is Coming and There are No Caves; Northern Long-eared Bat (Myotis septentrionalis) Activity During the Fall and Winter in Coastal North Carolina

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  • Winter is Coming and There are No Caves; Northern Long-eared Bat (Myotis septentrionalis) Activity During the Fall and Winter in Coastal North Carolina
Theresa Wetzel, Copperhead Environmental Consulting, Inc.
Chris Manley - NCDOT
Gary Jordan - USFWS
Mitigation for Transportation Projects
Terrestrial Wildlife and Ecosystem Interactions with Transportation

Northern long-eared bats (NLEB; Myotis septentrionalis) were first documented in eastern North Carolina's Coastal Plain in 2007 and relatively little is known of the natural history of the species in this region. While most NLEB across their range hibernate underground, the Coastal Plain has no known caves or mines. North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) contracted Copperhead Environmental Consulting, Inc. (Copperhead) to assist with portions of a research study to elucidate the distribution, habitat preferences, and behavior of NLEB in the Coastal Plain region during the fall and winter of 2017/2018. This research is being used as a voluntary conservation measure by NCDOT for an Endangered Species Act Section 7 programmatic consultation. Mist-netting was conducted at 18 sites within the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (ARNWR) and the Gull Rock Game Land in Dare and Hyde counties, North Carolina. A total of 153 bats of 7 species were captured, including 17 NLEB. Twelve NLEB were fitted with radio transmitters (10 temperature sensitive and 2 non-temperature sensitive) and tracked to 54 roost trees of 13 tree species in the ARNWR. All bats were captured when ambient temperature was ≈51.1°F and radio-tagged bats were recorded as normothermic at ambient temperatures as low as 37.6°F. This project contributes to the growing body of evidence indicating that this species maintains a year-round presence, utilizing roost trees to overwinter in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina.

bat
Transportation
habitat
ICOET 2025 — International Conference On Ecology and Transportation