Occurrence of temperate bat species at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and Grand Portage National Monument
Kruger L and Peterson R. 2008. Occurrence of temperate bat species at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and Grand Portage National Monument
A Microsoft Access database that contains data collected on bats at three national parks. Lack of information about and the recognized importance of temperate bats as key components of northern Great Lakes ecosystems have placed bats as a high priority for biological inventories at three national parks within the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network (GLKN). In 2003, acoustic (Anabat II) sampling and mist netting were conducted at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (PIRO), Michigan; Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (APIS), Wisconsin; and Grand Portage National Monument (GRPO), Minnesota. Six of a probable seven species of bats were verified in all three parks. We verified the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), northern bat (M. septentrionalis), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis), hoary bat (L. cinereus), silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans), and the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus). The only bat not verified was the eastern pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus), a fairly uncommon summer species in the Lake Superior region. Mist netting and acoustic sampling in combination were effective for documenting species presence. Neither method was capable of independently verifying all bat species. We created a bat call reference library for bat species of the Great Lakes region, which will aid in future acoustic inventory and monitoring efforts. While our efforts have successfully documented bat species presence in each of the three parks, future monitoring is needed to determine how they interact with the surrounding ecosystems of each park. Specifically, monitoring efforts should concentrate on important population limiting factors of temperate bat species, such as available roosting and foraging habitat.(Taken from: Kruger, L., and R. O. Peterson. 2008. Occurrence of temperate bat species at three national parks in the Great Lakes region. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/GLKN/NRTR–2008/128. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.)