Post by L Roebuck on Jun 5, 2006 7:07:33 GMT -5
Conservationists work to preserve Midstate bat cave
Gate will keep out people to shield bats during hibernation
By KELLI GAUTHIER
Chattanooga Times Free Press
McMINNVILLE, Tenn. — Tina and Bruce Ventura can think of no better way to spend their vacation than slogging through mud, dragging steel beams down steep inclines and helping to build a 30-foot steel gate inside the mouth of a giant cave.
The Venturas are helping the Tennessee Nature Conservancy preserve one of the largest populations of endangered gray bats in the world by rebuilding a gate at the opening to Hubbard's Cave in Warren County.
The couple, from Marquette, Mich., said this is the largest bat cave gate they've built.
"This isn't just any old gatebuilding," Tina Ventura said. "It's famous because it's so big. To come on vacation from Michigan, we wouldn't have come to a smaller one."
The Venturas joined a team that includes other volunteers, Nature Conservancy employees, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Speleological Society, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Tennessee Division of State Natural Areas, the American Cave Conservation Association and Bat Conservation International Inc.
The gate keeps people from entering the cave and disturbing the bats while they hibernate between September and May, said Gabrielle Call, Tennessee Nature Conservancy associate state director.
The estimated 520,000 gray bats that hibernate in Hubbard's Cave need the constant 45- to 46-degree temperature in the cave to lower their metabolic processes. "The temperature allows bats to drop their respiration and heart rate and body temperature to a low level so their stored fat lasts longer," said Jim Kennedy, a biologist from Bat Conservation International.
People in the cave can change the temperature, sometimes causing the bats to die, he said.
Gina Hancock with the Nature Conservancy said that some people deliberately injure or kill the bats, sometimes by dousing them with kerosene and setting them ablaze. Work on the gate is not disturbing the bats because they have awakened from hibernation and left the cave, she said.
Female gray bats spend the summer roosting in "maternity" caves while males go to "bachelor" caves within several hundred miles, Call said. Some female bats roost in Nickajack Cave, Kennedy said.
Roy Powers, the gate engineer, said the horizontal slats that make up the gate are placed 5¾ inches apart, allowing the bats room to spread their wings and fly in and out of the cave. The design gives the bats easier access than the original gate built over the south entrance in 1985, Powers said.
Since the first gate was built, the population of gray bats in Hubbard's Cave has increased from fewer than 100,000 to more than 520,000, Call said.
Powers has built bat gates throughout the eastern United States for more than 25 years.
"The old gate took six weeks to put up," he said. "The new design makes it better for the bats, and it's easier to put up."
Call said Nature Conservancy officials have wanted to rebuild the gate for years, but it wasn't until late 2005 that a private donation made the project possible.
Since the 1960s, Hubbard's Cave has been monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because of the large population of gray bats.
After the drastic drop in the gray bat population that culminated in the endangered designation in 1976, the Nature Conservancy bought the cave from a local family in the 1980s to protect the bats.
Nature Conservancy officials said Hubbard's Cave is not the only gray bat cave in the area, but its large population makes it crucial to the survival of the species.
According to Call, bats are part of the Earth's biological diversity and should be protected. They also help with mosquito control and eat insect predators that destroy crops.
There are 45 different species of bats in North America, according to Bat Conservation's Web site. Hubbard's Cave has been home to five bat species, including the endangered gray and Indiana bats. Dave Pelren, a biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Indiana bats have not been seen in the cave for several years.
Call said that with the diminishing populations of Indiana bats, there is concern that the species will go extinct in the near future.
Full Article:
www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060605/NEWS01/606050339/1006
Also see: Re-gating Hubbards Cave
Gate will keep out people to shield bats during hibernation
By KELLI GAUTHIER
Chattanooga Times Free Press
McMINNVILLE, Tenn. — Tina and Bruce Ventura can think of no better way to spend their vacation than slogging through mud, dragging steel beams down steep inclines and helping to build a 30-foot steel gate inside the mouth of a giant cave.
The Venturas are helping the Tennessee Nature Conservancy preserve one of the largest populations of endangered gray bats in the world by rebuilding a gate at the opening to Hubbard's Cave in Warren County.
The couple, from Marquette, Mich., said this is the largest bat cave gate they've built.
"This isn't just any old gatebuilding," Tina Ventura said. "It's famous because it's so big. To come on vacation from Michigan, we wouldn't have come to a smaller one."
The Venturas joined a team that includes other volunteers, Nature Conservancy employees, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Speleological Society, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Tennessee Division of State Natural Areas, the American Cave Conservation Association and Bat Conservation International Inc.
The gate keeps people from entering the cave and disturbing the bats while they hibernate between September and May, said Gabrielle Call, Tennessee Nature Conservancy associate state director.
The estimated 520,000 gray bats that hibernate in Hubbard's Cave need the constant 45- to 46-degree temperature in the cave to lower their metabolic processes. "The temperature allows bats to drop their respiration and heart rate and body temperature to a low level so their stored fat lasts longer," said Jim Kennedy, a biologist from Bat Conservation International.
People in the cave can change the temperature, sometimes causing the bats to die, he said.
Gina Hancock with the Nature Conservancy said that some people deliberately injure or kill the bats, sometimes by dousing them with kerosene and setting them ablaze. Work on the gate is not disturbing the bats because they have awakened from hibernation and left the cave, she said.
Female gray bats spend the summer roosting in "maternity" caves while males go to "bachelor" caves within several hundred miles, Call said. Some female bats roost in Nickajack Cave, Kennedy said.
Roy Powers, the gate engineer, said the horizontal slats that make up the gate are placed 5¾ inches apart, allowing the bats room to spread their wings and fly in and out of the cave. The design gives the bats easier access than the original gate built over the south entrance in 1985, Powers said.
Since the first gate was built, the population of gray bats in Hubbard's Cave has increased from fewer than 100,000 to more than 520,000, Call said.
Powers has built bat gates throughout the eastern United States for more than 25 years.
"The old gate took six weeks to put up," he said. "The new design makes it better for the bats, and it's easier to put up."
Call said Nature Conservancy officials have wanted to rebuild the gate for years, but it wasn't until late 2005 that a private donation made the project possible.
Since the 1960s, Hubbard's Cave has been monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because of the large population of gray bats.
After the drastic drop in the gray bat population that culminated in the endangered designation in 1976, the Nature Conservancy bought the cave from a local family in the 1980s to protect the bats.
Nature Conservancy officials said Hubbard's Cave is not the only gray bat cave in the area, but its large population makes it crucial to the survival of the species.
According to Call, bats are part of the Earth's biological diversity and should be protected. They also help with mosquito control and eat insect predators that destroy crops.
There are 45 different species of bats in North America, according to Bat Conservation's Web site. Hubbard's Cave has been home to five bat species, including the endangered gray and Indiana bats. Dave Pelren, a biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Indiana bats have not been seen in the cave for several years.
Call said that with the diminishing populations of Indiana bats, there is concern that the species will go extinct in the near future.
Full Article:
www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060605/NEWS01/606050339/1006
Also see: Re-gating Hubbards Cave