News from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

For more information contact: Maureen Wren, 518-402-8000

DEC Repairs Winter Home of Endangered Bat Colony

Ulster County Landowner Partners with State In Second Indiana Bat Protection Project

ALBANY, NY (11/19/2007; 1254)(readMedia)-- Endangered Indiana bats recently received important help from an Ulster County landowner and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that will make it possible for the colony to survive the winter, Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources Director Patricia Riexinger today announced.

As part of the Landowner Incentive Program, DEC staff temporarily sealed a shaft that had opened in the ceiling of an Indiana bat wintering site. This crucial fix will prevent freezing temperatures from harming the 24,000 endangered Indiana bats and thousands of bats of other species known to winter there. The location harbors nearly half of all Indiana bats in New York State and is the eighth largest wintering population for the species range-wide.

At the site in Ulster County, a shaft in the ceiling of the Indiana bat’s wintering site, known as a “hibernaculum,” had been plugged many decades ago when the mine was still active. This summer, the plug failed, which, come wintertime, would have allowed warm air to escape, dropping temperatures below temperatures typically encountered by the bats, and making the mine too cold for the animals to survive. With the landowner’s approval, DEC staff acted quickly to temporarily seal the opening. A permanent fix being planned for next summer will allow DEC limited control of air flow. Managing air flow will permit some level of temperature control, in preparation for the coming challenge posed by global warming. It is hoped that having the ability to release warm air will allow us to keep temperatures within an acceptable range in the future.

The Indiana bat is designated as a federal and state endangered species. It is one of nine bat species found in New York State. The Indiana bat is found within the central portion of the eastern United States, from Vermont to Wisconsin, Missouri and Arkansas and south and east to northwestern Florida. In New York, it is known to hibernate in 12 different caves or mines, although 93 percent are in just three sites. There are approximately 52,000 bats wintering in eight known hibernacula in Albany, Essex, Warren, Jefferson, Onondaga and Ulster counties. Searches for additional wintering sites continue so that they too can be protected. Bats are most vulnerable when they are hibernating, and as such, DEC seldom discloses specific locations to prevent public intrusion that could stir and wake up the bats, causing them to deplete their fat supplies at an accelerated rate and reduce their chances of surviving the winter.

Indiana bats spend the winter months in secluded caves or mines with average temperatures of 37-43 degrees Fahrenheit. Criteria for the bats’ selection of hibernacula are not clearly understood; many seemingly suitable sites are not occupied. Where this species is found, however, it can be extremely abundant, congregating in densities of more than 300 per square foot. Year after year, bats often return to exactly the same spots within individual caves or mines. Hibernation can begin as early as September and extend nearly to June. For more information about Indiana bats, go to www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6972.html on the DEC website.

The repair work on the ceiling was made available through support from the Landowner Incentive Program (LIP), a collaborative effort between the DEC and private landowners for the conservation of at-risk species on their land. LIP funding is made available by a grant from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and is restricted to projects that benefit species of greatest conservation need, as identified in the state’s Wildlife Action Plan.

This is the second LIP project assisting New York’s Indiana bats – last year, DEC and its partners helped repair a gate at one of the most critical hibernacula in the Northeast in a graphite mine in the Adirondacks. LIP will also help fund projects to protect dwindling grassland habitats of significance to such species as the endangered short-eared owl and the threatened Henslow's sparrow, as well as to protect fens, bogs and wet meadows that are important for species such as bog turtles.

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