Bat Projects in Parks: Shenandoah National Park

Summary

Continued Post-WNS Assessment of Bats at Shenandoah National Park

PI: Rolf Gubler

Shenandoah National Park (SHEN) continued its cooperative agreement with Virginia Tech (Mark Ford) and the USGS to continue post-white-nose syndrome (WNS) acoustic surveys and targeted mist-netting to determine bat species occupancy and habitat use in SHEN. Virginia Tech and the USGS conducted acoustic bat surveys of 24 sites in the park that ran throughout the summer totaling 2,127 detector-nights. VA Tech conducted mist-netting on 17 nights capturing 6 female and 1 male northern long-eared (NLE) bats in the park. They radio-tagged and tracked the female NLE bats to 11 different roost trees. SHEN is one of only four areas in Virginia with active NLE bat maternity colonies.