Post by L Roebuck on Sept 17, 2006 6:49:03 GMT -5
Gates to keep people out and keep cave-dwelling bats safe
State makes three more caves off-limits to let residents hang out safely in winter
Sunday, September 17, 2006
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
UNIONTOWN -- An Eastern pipistrelle bat was hanging out all alone on the low limestone ceiling, 50 yards into cool, dark-as-the-inside-of-your-coffin Barton Cave.
Smaller than a computer mouse and with red forearms and light brown belly fur, the bat was asleep just for the day. But several hundred other pipistrelles, along with little brown and big brown bats, will soon join him for a more prolonged stay, attaching themselves to the cave roof to hibernate until spring.
For the first time, their winter nap will not be interrupted by human visitors.
Barton Cave, in Fayette County, along with Coon and Lemon Hole caves in Westmoreland County, have been outfitted with specially constructed, heavy metal and concrete locking gates, with bars far enough apart to let bats in but small enough to keep cavers out. The three caves, which are in the Forbes State Forest, along the Laurel Ridge, will be closed from the beginning of October through the end of May.
The gated caves are the latest additions to a bat conservation program that, since the mid-1980s, has locked up and limited public access to more than 20 caves and twice as many abandoned mines around the state, said Aura Stauffer, a wildlife biologist and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' resident bat expert. The caves are known bat hibernaculums, places where bats gather in colonies and hibernate through the late fall, winter and early spring.
The program, jointly run by the DCNR and the State Game Commission, aims to prevent people from hurting one of nature's most misunderstood creatures during its most vulnerable time.
Lemon Hole and Coon caves each house more than 1,000 bats for the winter months. About 400 use Barton Cave. Ms. Stauffer said the caves had been on her list for gating for several years. A joint federal and state grant of $7,500 provided the money to do all three.
"When bats are hibernating in a concentrated area like this cave, any disturbance can cause the bats to wake up," Ms. Stauffer said while leading a tour of Barton Cave last week. "When that happens, bats can die because they expend energy and use body fat they need to get them through the winter."
Full Article
State makes three more caves off-limits to let residents hang out safely in winter
Sunday, September 17, 2006
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
UNIONTOWN -- An Eastern pipistrelle bat was hanging out all alone on the low limestone ceiling, 50 yards into cool, dark-as-the-inside-of-your-coffin Barton Cave.
Smaller than a computer mouse and with red forearms and light brown belly fur, the bat was asleep just for the day. But several hundred other pipistrelles, along with little brown and big brown bats, will soon join him for a more prolonged stay, attaching themselves to the cave roof to hibernate until spring.
For the first time, their winter nap will not be interrupted by human visitors.
Barton Cave, in Fayette County, along with Coon and Lemon Hole caves in Westmoreland County, have been outfitted with specially constructed, heavy metal and concrete locking gates, with bars far enough apart to let bats in but small enough to keep cavers out. The three caves, which are in the Forbes State Forest, along the Laurel Ridge, will be closed from the beginning of October through the end of May.
The gated caves are the latest additions to a bat conservation program that, since the mid-1980s, has locked up and limited public access to more than 20 caves and twice as many abandoned mines around the state, said Aura Stauffer, a wildlife biologist and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' resident bat expert. The caves are known bat hibernaculums, places where bats gather in colonies and hibernate through the late fall, winter and early spring.
The program, jointly run by the DCNR and the State Game Commission, aims to prevent people from hurting one of nature's most misunderstood creatures during its most vulnerable time.
Lemon Hole and Coon caves each house more than 1,000 bats for the winter months. About 400 use Barton Cave. Ms. Stauffer said the caves had been on her list for gating for several years. A joint federal and state grant of $7,500 provided the money to do all three.
"When bats are hibernating in a concentrated area like this cave, any disturbance can cause the bats to wake up," Ms. Stauffer said while leading a tour of Barton Cave last week. "When that happens, bats can die because they expend energy and use body fat they need to get them through the winter."
Full Article