Bats of Wyandotte Cave, Crawford County Indiana‪.‬

ABSTRACT. Nine of the 12 species of bats known from Indiana have been observed at Wyandotte Cave during mist-netting or trapping at the entrance and by in-cave counts from 1953 to the present. The most abundant bat at Wyandotte Cave is the Indiana myotis, Myotis sodalis, and the numbers of bats of that species hibernating in the cave have been increasing steadily over the last two decades. The second most abundant bat is the little brown myotis, Myotis lucifugus. At least prior to 1980, little brown myotis outnumbered Indiana myotis during swarming; but that has changed as the hibernating population of Indiana myotis increased. Relatively few eastern pipistrelles (Pipistrellus subflavus) or big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), are found at Wyandotte Cave, and Myotis septentrionalis is even less common. One southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius, now extirpated in Indiana), was seen in hibernation there in February 1966. One gray bat (Myotis grisescens) was found in hibernation in the cave in February 1967, and several have been netted at the entrance. Also, a few male gray bats were found inside the cave in summer forming a small bachelor colony. Two silver-haired bats, Lasionycteris noctivagans, were found in hibernation: and two were captured by mist-netting, both in late March. Red bats, Lasiurus borealis, are seldom found in caves, but 43 were captured by mist-netting at the entrance. Keywords: Bats, Chiroptera, hibernation, Wyandotte Cave