| Understanding how forest management practices impact bats is important for maintaining a diverse bat community rare species, especially the federally endangered Indiana myotis (Myotis sodalis) need special consideration. Bats play an important role in the environment because they prey on insects, especially pest species, and conservation of viable foraging and roosting habitats is critical. Positive and negative aspects of the implementation of forest management techniques are discussed for each bat species. Bats were sampled using mist nets at four locations in Morgan-Monroe and five locations in Yellowwood State Forests twice during each summer 2006-2008. Netting locations were adjacent to or in forest stands scheduled for experimental manipulations following conclusion of netting in 2008. This effort produced 342 bats. These data provide a baseline to understand how bats are affected by long-term forest manipulations. An acoustical survey was conducted in summer 2007 to determine forest habitats where bat species occur. Anabat II bat detectors in four habitat types,--interior forest, canopy gap, forest edge, and corridors--produced calls from 7 species, a total of 3113 calls (842 corridor, 681 forest edge, 1075 canopy gap, and 515 forest interior) during 337 sample nights. Occupancy of each habitat by each species was determined canopy gaps were occupied most, followed by forest edge, corridors, and interior forest. These data are used to predict the response of bats to forest manipulations. |
