Bats of Texas

Appendix 2: Timelines

spotted bat 179 within 10 km of their roost site (WaiPing and Fenton 1989). However, in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, they commute up to 77 km each night between their roost in the canyon and the meadows where they forage up on the canyon rim. In this case, these bats use a night roost in groves of trees after feeding and before commuting back to their day roost (Rabe et al. 1998b). Otherwise, this species flies continuously all night, and its activity is fairly constant throughout the night (Leonard and Fenton 1983; Storz 1995; Wai-Ping and Fenton 1989). Euderma usually forage over open meadows and other clearings within ponderosa pine forests, but not in the forest itself, as well as in pinyon-juniper habitat (Navo et al. 1992). They have been found feeding over a golf course in Washington and over agricultural fields in British Columbia (Gitzen et al. 2001; Leonard and Fenton 1983). They do not typically forage over streams or other riparian areas, as do many other species of bats, but use streams as flight corridors where they may opportunistically feed while traveling between foraging grounds (Leonard and Fenton 1983; Pierson and Rainey 1998; Storz 1995; Szewczak et al. 1998; Wai-Ping and Fenton 1989; Woodsworth et al. 1981). They are fast, high fliers that travel about 19 km per hour while foraging and up to 50 km per hour while commuting from their roost to their foraging grounds (Rabe et al. 1998b; Wai-Ping and Fenton 1989). They forage in large elliptical orbits 10– 30 m above the ground and circumnavigate the same group of foraging areas several times per night (Navo et al. 1992; with the capture of spotted bats is the presence nearby of broken canyon country or cliffs, which are their preferred roosting sites (Easterla 1973; Pierson and Rainey 1998; Poche 1981; Priday and Luce 1999). Life History. Spotted bats favor the crevices found in vertical cliff faces as roosting sites but also have been documented roosting in caves, mines, and buildings (Easterla 1973; Geluso 2000; Mickey 1961; Miller 1903; Poche 1975; Poche and Ruffner 1975; Rodeck 1961; Sherwin and Gannon 2005). Studies in British Columbia indicate that individuals consistently return to the same cliff face to roost (Leonard and Fenton 1983; Wai-Ping and Fenton 1989). This species roosts solitarily or in small groups of fewer than 10 individuals (Easterla 1973; Mead and Mikesic 2001; Poche 1975). The winter habits of this species are poorly known, and there are only a handful of records from November through February (Ruffner et al. 1979; Sherwin and Gannon 2005; Szewczak et al. 1998). Once thought to be relatively late fliers , spotted bats actually leave the roost within about 1 hour of sunset and do not return until early morning (Leonard and Fenton 1983; Mead and Mikesic 2001; Poche 1981; Priday and Luce 1999; Storz 1995; Szewczak et al. 1998; Wai-Ping and Fenton 1989; Woodsworth et al. 1981). Their characterization as a late flier was due to the long distance they travel between the roost and foraging areas at some locations; thus, they were not captured until later in the evening (Geluso 2000). In British Columbia, they forage 180 family vespertilionidae 1 m, if at all (Fullard and Dawson 1997). Obviously this would greatly enhance Euderma’s hunting ability. Because calls of lower frequency by definition have a longer wavelength, which limits the lower size threshold of a target’s detectability , spotted bats can detect only objects that are 10 mm in diameter or larger, which is consistent with the size of prey they are known to capture (Leonard and Fenton 1984). Data on reproduction are sparse. It is unknown when this species mates, but males with scrotal testes have been taken in June in Arizona and in August in Utah (Easterla 1965; Poche 1975; Poche and Ruffner 1975). Six males collected from March to August (no location was given) were found to have mature spermatozoa (Poche 1981). One pregnant female was captured in Big Bend National Park in June, and a pregnant female has been taken in both Nevada and Arizona in the same month (Easterla 1973; Geluso 2000; Poche 1975). Lactating females have been captured in Big Bend, Texas, and in Wyoming , Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona from June through August (Berna 1990; Easterla 1973; Findley and Jones 1965; Geluso 2000; Perry et al. 1997; Priday and Luce 1999). Thus, parturition probably occurs from late May to mid-June at Big Bend...