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To the bat cave! These bats have their own gated neighborhood

Gates erected to protect bats from public

Brian Broom
Mississippi Clarion Ledger

Caves aren't common in Mississippi so it's no wonder that Pitts Cave in Wayne County has long been an attraction. It has over 400 meters of passageways, various rooms and a stream that call to the adventurous. However, people exploring the cave can cause problems for one of its vulnerable residents — bats.

"We have 15 different species in the state," said Kathy Shelton, South Mississippi conservation biologist with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. "Three are listed as endangered.

"We have others that aren't endangered in their range, but are rare here. In winter, the tri-colored bat hibernates in the cave. That is a species that has been petitioned to be listed in the Endangered Species Act."

Biologist Kathy Shelton stands outside the newly gated Pitts cave, also called Williams cave, in Wayne county. The gate was placed by Shelton and fellow bat conservationists and volunteers with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science and Mississippi Bat Working Group to protect local bat colonies from human encroachment. Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018.

It is also home to another species of bats.

"This cave has Southeast myotis bats and it's a large maternity roost in the summer which means that's where mothers go to have their babies," Shelton said. "One of the problems is that so many people, even though it's on private land, would visit the cave.

"They would potentially go in and disturb the bats while they're hibernating or worse, during the maternity season."

And disturbing them during those periods can be fatal for bats. During hibernation, bats use stored energy and if they wake up, that energy is difficult to replace because food resources are low at that time. During the maternity season, disturbing the bats can cause the young to fall where they are exposed to potentially drowning, hypothermia and predators.

The disturbances could also put a large number of bats at risk. Shelton said 500 to 1,000 tri-colored bats use the cave as do thousands of Southeastern myotis bats.

Kathy Shelton of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science waits inside Pitts cave, also known as Williams cave, of Wayne County for a colony of bats to take flight for evening feeding. Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018.

Gated community

It was decided among museum staff and the US Fish and Wildlife Service that the bats needed protection and gates were recently installed to prevent human access, but allow bats to fly in and out freely.

"We started on a Thursday morning and finished three very long days later," Shelton said. "That was two gates; a smaller gate on one entrance and a larger gate on the front entrance."

Jaime Smith of Ocean Springs is a University of Southern Mississippi graduate student studying herpetology. She volunteered to help with the project and said working with steel beams weighing hundreds of pounds was difficult, but worth it.

"It was a lot of work," Smith said. "It was physically very challenging.

"We got it done. You walk away with a sense of accomplishment. That's really nice when you get to have those moments."

The gating project isn't the first time Smith has volunteered to work with bats. She and others have helped with locating and capturing bats so biologists can gather data about the populations in the state.

"I would say it's just kind of fun," Smith said. "Who wouldn't want to go out at night and work with cute little bats and help out an endangered species. I had the opportunity and it sounded fun."

More than fun

The field work may be fun, but there's more to it. Shelton said she began working with bats at her current level about seven years ago, but before that little data was collected. Now she has a better image of what our populations look like. That's important because bats are facing a deadly illness known as white-nose syndrome.

"White-nose syndrome has heavily impacted bat numbers in the Northeast," Shelton said. "They estimate billions of bats have died.

"We haven't found white-nose syndrome in Mississippi, but we have found the fungus that causes it. That's a huge concern."

Shelton said it's a concern because of the vital roles bats play.

Bats fly through Pitts cave, also known as Williams cave, in Wayne county on their evening feeding journey. A steel gate was recently installed at entrances to the limestone cave as a conservation measure against human interference in the natural bat habitat. Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018.

"Bats are the primary consumers of nocturnal insects," Shelton said. "It's said they save the agriculture industry billions of dollars just because they don't have to use as many pesticides on their crops. 

"In other areas, they are the primary pollinators for agricultural crops. They are a part of the ecosystem. They eat things and things eat them. If you lost all the bats in the Southeast you'd have so many impacts. Some plants would go extinct if bats disappeared."

Given their importance, the threat of white-nose syndrome and the loss of habitat that bats face, Shelton said research and conservation projects such as the gating of Pitts Cave are much needed.

"The gates are so important because there are so many stresses on bats," Shelton said. "If we can give them safety when they hibernate and have babies it might give them a little push. We just want to give them that little extra boost."

To learn more about bats or to volunteer for bat conservation, visit the Mississippi Bat Working Group website at msbats.org.

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