one-half hour before sunrise. Nets were taken down one-half 

 hour before sunrise to avoid catching birds. 



One or two walking transects were conducted at each site, 

 depending upon available personnel. Beginning approximately 

 one-half hour after sunset, and lasting for one hour, a 

 transect was walked through habitat representative of the 

 area, using an "ultra-sonic bat detector." All bats heard 

 were recorded as "cruising, searching, or feeding," 

 depending on activity, by species if identifiable, and by 

 time period. 



As information collected in 1991 on the Deerlodge National 

 Forest suggested that little bat activity occurred after 

 midnight, walking transects were run no later than that 



time. 



RESULTS 



A total of five nights were spent surveying bats at four 

 different sites on the Townsend Ranger District in 1992 

 (July 14, 15, 18, 27, and 28). Three of these sites, 

 Avalanche, Hellgate, White's Gulches are located at the 

 mouths of canyons cutting through a large limestone outcrop 

 on the western flank of the Big Belt Mountains east of 

 Canyon Ferry Lake. The fourth site was located on Indian 

 Creek on the east flanks of the Elkhorn Mountains west of 



