2016 Acoustic Bat Monitoring in the Apostle Islands

Pemble, Kenneth; Schultz, Laura

As bat species affected by White Nose Syndrome (WNS), decline throughout the eastern United Stated and Canada, gathering base-line data becomes critical. WNS has been confirmed 70 miles away in Douglas County (Heffernan, 2016), and as it approaches the Apostle Islands, it is important to understand the resource before it becomes directly affected by this devastating disease. Between June 2nd and August 22nd, 2016, staff from the Planning and Resource Management Division (PRM) at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (APIS) used acoustic monitoring devices (Wildlife Acoustics, SM3BAT) to sample ultrasonic bat calls at 28 sites located throughout 14 of the 21 islands that make up the park along with 2 sites on the mainland, the 2016 work is a continuation of work begun in 2015. Protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in use were developed by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. (WEST, Inc.) (Gruver et al., 2016) and the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network (GLKN) (Route and Matzinger, 2016). New acoustic monitoring locations were selected this year due to a change in protocols. The park was divided into randomly selected 1 km2 blocks, Within each 1 km2 block, specific sites were optimally selected for bat habitat and/or logistical constraints, including both natural and cultural landscapes. Roving detectors were kept at a site between 7-14 days. Deployment lengths were dependent on the logistics of moving between islands, boat schedules, duration of battery life, and weather. After completion of monitoring at a roving site, the monitors were moved to the next randomly selected site. A total of 46,412 files were generated throughout the 2016 season with 43,155 suspected to be bat calls. Seven species of bats were identified APIS including the federally threatened and state of Wisconsin threatened, northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) and the tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus), which is listed as state of Wisconsin threatened and petitioned for federal listing, state of Wisconsin threatened big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) and state of Wisconsin threatened little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus). Three other non-listed species occur in the park, Silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivigans), Eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) and Hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus). (Note - all identifications of tri-colored bats should be treated with caution, APIS is outside of the known range of tri-colored bats and no physical specimen has been documented.)This is a summary field report, collected data from this year has been sent to GLKN for further review and analysis.