Dramatic rock formations make Kartchner Caverns a favorite of tourists, but the Arizona State Parks officials are developing the cave with a careful eye to protecting the bats that live there part of each year. (Photo courtesy of Arizona State Parks.)

Bats Hold Sway at Kartchner Caverns State Park

Kartchner Caverns, studded with dramatic rock formations throughout its 2 1/2-mile length, is considered the crown jewel of Arizona state parks. And the cave's residents - up to 1,700 bats - are getting royal treatment from the state.

The Associated Press reports that the bats (cave myotis or, officially, Myotis velifer), which live in the cave's “Big Room” complex from mid-April to mid-October, affect just about everything from work schedules and construction projects to plans for public tours of the beautiful Big Room.

“The bats (a nursery colony of mothers and babies) have the priority in the scheduling. When they arrive, it becomes their cave and we bow out of the equation,” Rick Toomey, cave resources manager of Kartchner Caverns State Park told AP.

The park, about 40 miles southeast of Tucson, opened in November 1999 and attracts about 180,000 people a year to visit the two chambers that are currently open. Tours of the Big Room are planned soon and work crews are preparing paths and lighting to accommodate the public - but only when the bats aren't home.

Cave myotis aren't endangered in the American Southwest, but park officials note their important role in maintaining the cave's ecosystem and, as insect-eaters, their role in keeping insect populations in balance.

Besides, said Tucson biologist Ronnie Sidner, who has studied the bats, “The beauty of Kartchner is that it is a protected place that the bats can come back to every year. Bats only have one young a year. It's pretty critical that we not do things to decrease their numbers.”

Human disturbances can be devastating to cave myotis that live in the caverns' dark depths, so when Big Room tours begin, possibly in 2003, don't plan on showing up until after the bats leave in October.

For more information about Kartchner Caverns State Park, visit www.pr.state.az.us/parkhtml/kartchner.html.

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