The most complete and up-to-date research on the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) ever collected was recently published by Bat Conservation International. The Indiana Bat: Biology and Management of an Endangered Species presents 27 scientific papers by 59 top bat biologists.
The Indiana bat, which once numbered in the tens of millions across eastern North America, was listed as an endangered species in the United States on March 11, 1967. In 1960, wildlife biologists had estimated about 880,000 Indiana bats survived in 26 eastern states. By 2001, their numbers had fallen 57 percent to about 380,000.
Although the plight of this species has received considerable attention in recent years, important research by graduate students, consultants, and government biologists often went unreported. Even the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Indiana Bat Recovery Team was often unaware of the latest findings.
That began to change two years ago, when BCI helped organize a first-of-its-kind conference on the Indiana bat. The session drew about 200 researchers, resource managers, wildlife biologists, and agency representatives to Lexington, Kentucky, for two days of presentations by leading experts on the status, behavior, and protection of Indiana bats.
Those presentations have now been published in the conference proceedings, The Indiana Bat: Biology and Management of an Endangered Species. The 265-page book, edited by Allen Kurta and Jim Kennedy, includes a foreword by conference organizer Michael Lacki of the University of Kentucky. All papers are also available digitally on an accompanying CD.
Copies of the publication will be mailed automatically to those who attended the conference. Additional copies are available for $17 each, plus shipping, from Speleobooks.
The symposium was sponsored by the Northeast Bat Working Group, Southeastern Bat Diversity Network, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Eastern Kentucky Power Cooperative, BHE Environmental, University of Kentucky, and Bat Conservation International.
