Bats of the Great Dismal Swamp 



19 



RESULTS 



From 5 October 1983 through 15 March 1986, we spent 77 evenings 

 collecting bats (Table 2). We collected a total of 89 specimens represent- 

 ing five genera and seven species. Four of these species are new records 

 for the Dismal Swamp: the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus (Palisot de 

 Beauvois); the silver-haired bat, Lasionycteris noctivagans (LeConte); 

 the hoary bat, Lasiurus cinereus (Palisot de Beauvois); and the Seminole 

 bat, Lasiurus seminolus (Rhoads). 



The silver-haired bat was active and relatively common during the 

 winter months. Eight were collected (Table 2), indicating that this bat is 

 relatively common in winter. Although we collected only eight specimens, 

 we observed silver-haired bats on several occasions during December 

 and January throughout the Dismal Swamp. Sometimes we saw these 

 bats emerging from hollow bald cypress trees, Taxodium distiehum, 

 growing in Lake Drummond. In good light, silver-haired bats could be 

 distinguished by their nearly black coloration, and they often flew in 



Table 1 . Historical records of the 10 species of bats previously thought to occur in the Great Dismal 

 Swamp (Handley 1979a) compared with the species of bats found there during the present study. 



Species 



Location and year(s) 

 collected 



N 

 P 



umber collected 

 -evious/ Current 



Present in swamp 

 Previous/ Current 



Little brown bat 



Bertie Co., N.C., 1891-1893 





3 









no 



no 



Keen's myotis 



Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp, 

 1896,1930 





2 









yes 



no 



Silver-haired bat 



Bertie Co., N.C., 1891-1892 





6 





8 



no 



yes 



Eastern pipistrelle 



Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp, 

 1895, 1905, 1964 





6 





6 



yes 



yes 



Big brown bat 



Bertie Co., N.C., 1891, 1893 





3 





6 



no 



yes 



Red bat 



Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp, 

 1895, 1897 





3 





50 



yes 



yes 



Seminole bat 



Hoary bat 

 Yellow bat 

 Evening bat 



Rafinesque's 



big-eared bat 



Total specimens 

 collected 



Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp, 

 1983 



Dismal Swamp, 1983 



Willoughby, Norfolk, Va., 1954 



Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp, 

 1895, 1896, 1898 



Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp, 

 1897 



yes 



yes 







1 



no 



yes 



1 







no 



no 



13 



17 



yes 



yes 



38 



89 





