INTRODUCTION 



As demands for resources and recreational opportunities increase on public lands, 

 managers will be pressed to make wise decisions about the relative merits of each in context of 

 the entire biotic and physiographic system. How disturbance is likely to affect animal and 

 plant populations forms the basis for management plans, which must begin with an inventory 

 of species present. Bats are one of several groups which must be considered. Five species of 

 vespertilionid bats (Myoiis evoiis, M. ciliolabrum, M. volans, M. thysanodes, and Plecotus 

 townsendii) found in northwestern South Dakota and southeastern Montana are on the U. S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service list of candidate species Category 2 (C-2), including one species (P. 

 townsendii) listed by the U. S. Forest Service as Sensitive. 



Knowledge about the distribution, habitat requirements, and movements of bats in western 

 North America is fragmentary. In the Northern Great Plains, study efforts on bat populations 

 have generally been concentrated in areas with a relative abundance of caves: for instance, the 

 Black Hills of South Dakota (Turner 1974. Turner and Davis 1970). Nevertheless, there 

 remains much to be learned about basic distribution, seasonality of occurrence, habitat use, 

 and population status of most species. 



In the summer of 1994, a survey of bats occurring on the Sioux District, Custer National 

 Forest in Carter County, Montana, and Harding County, South Dakota, was initiated to 

 determine presence and distributions on the different forest units. The results of this survey, 

 along with data published previously, are presented here and should form the basis for further 

 inventory and monitoring efforts. 



