Bats of Texas

Acknowledgments

xv Acknowledgments This project could not have been completed without the assistance of many people at numerous institutions. More than 2,400 new specimens were examined for the updated version of Bats of Texas; we thank the following individuals and their respective institutions for providing access to collections and specimen data bases and for shipping specimens: Robert Baker (Texas Tech University, TTU), Lois Balin (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department), Amy Bishop (Angelo State Natural History Collection , ASNHC), Michael Bogan (United States Geological Survey, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USGS), Lisa Bradley (TTU), Robert Bradley (TTU), Andy Bradstreet (Stephen F. Austin State University, SFASU), Wes Brashear (ASNHC), Brent Burt (SFASU), Joseph Cook (University of New Mexico, UNM), Paul Cryan (USGS), Michael Dixon (University of Minnesota), Beverly Dole (University of Michigan Museum of Zoology), Robert Dowler (ASNHC), Jon Dunnum (UNM), Cody Edwards (George Mason University), Heath Garner (TTU),Keith Geluso (University of Nebraska at Kearney), Mark Hafner (Louisiana State University), Tom Lee (Abilene Christian University), Jessica Light (Texas A&M University, TAMU), Ben Marks (TAMU), Ray Matlack (West Texas A&M University), Bonny Mayes (Texas Department of State Health Services), Molly McDonough (TTU), Jim Mueller (Tarleton State University), Julie Parlos (TTU), Steven Platt (Sul Ross State University, SRSU), Heather Prestridge (TAMU), Cindy Ramotnik (USGS), Marcy Revelez (Oklahoma Museum of Natural History), Eric Rickart (Utah Museum of Natural History), Chris Ritzi (SRSU), Frederick Stangl (Midwestern State University), Monte Thies (Sam Houston State University), Robert Timm (University of Kansas), Marie Tipps (ASNHC), and Don Wilson (United States National Museum of Natural History). The illustrations for the keys and the general anatomy of bats were prepared by Carson Brown. His graceful and detailed drawings greatly enhance the clarity of the keys. Photographs of each bat species were included to aid in identification and to provide readers with a rare view of these elusive creatures. The photographs were graciously provided by Scott Altenbach. His exceptional work brings each bat species to life and is a major improvement over the first edition. His willingness to share his photographs is gratefully acknowledged and warmly appreciated. Several people willingly shared their knowledge of bats with us, including Louise Allen, Robert Baker, Robert Barclay, Gerald Carter, Tom Kunz, Ray Matlack, DeeAnn Reeder, and Ernest Valdez. We are thankful for their insight and enthusiasm. Thanks to Bill Gannon for providing the spectrographs. Tom Kunz and Jennifer Miller graciously provided photographs. Distributional maps were modified from The Mammals of Texas: Revised Edition by David J. Schmidly (2004), courtesy of the University of Texas Press. Website development was provided by Jay and Amy Packer, to whom we are indebted. The maps in the book would not exist if it were not for the efforts of xvi acknowledgments have aided in field work on Texas bats with Loren Ammerman over the last 15 years: Faisal Anwarali, Jana Higginbotham Baldwin, Sarah Bartlett, Amy Bishop, Wes Brashear, Scott Burt, Carson Brown, James Dixon, Leanne Dixon, Michael Dixon, Richard Dolman, Robert Dowler, Carla Ebeling, Adam Ferguson, Travis Fisher, Candace Frerich, Gema Guerra, Nick Hristov , Tom Kunz, Bob Lee, Dana Lee, David Long, Amanda Matthews, Steve McAllister, Molly McDonough, Michael Moreno, Amy Vestal Nalls, Steve Oertling, Austin Osmanski , Jay Packer, Fiona Reid, Aimee Roberson , Rogelio Rodriguez, Michael Ryan, Raymond Skiles, Jason Strickland, Rustin Tabor, Marie Tipps, and Suzanne Tomlinson . We look forward to future research on the bats of Texas. Jerry Dragoo in the design of the map of Texas ecoregions and Brian Beck for aid in creating the distribution maps. We sincerely appreciate their efforts. Michael Bogan critiqued the keys and added helpful insight into how to best distinguish some of the more cryptic species. His experience with bat identification was inimitable. The Interlibrary Loan Departments at UNM and ASU rapidly provided dozens of papers which would have taken weeks to track down otherwise. They did a tremendous job. We acknowledge financial support in the form of an Angelo State University Faculty Development Grant for Loren Ammerman to visit museum collections and examine the specimens used in this revision. Special thanks to those individuals who BatsofTexas ...