this year tracking and possibly 

 light-tagging in the Francis Beidler 

 Forest, a part of Four Holes Swamp in 

 South Carolina. This forest contains 

 1,700 acres of virgin bald cypress 

 trees, the largest such stand in the 

 world and home to a variety of bats 

 and cavity-dwelling birds, says Norman 

 Brunswig, assistant sanctuary manager 

 for the National 

 Audubon Society. 



Brunswig is 

 anxious to know if 

 the eastern 

 big-eared bat is 

 among the animals 

 there. If so, it could 

 provide an indis- 

 pensable new tool in 

 the effort to pre- 

 serve and foster 

 respect for the 

 old-growth forest 

 habitat, he says. 



"We are trying 

 to make the case 

 that very big, old 

 trees are a very 

 valuable part of the 

 biodiversity of the 

 earth," Brunswig 

 says. "If we want to 

 make really big 

 contributions to 

 biodiversity, we 

 have to preserve 

 large blocks of all 

 kinds of habitat." 



Still, the bat's 

 taste for old trees 



and buildings may complicate its future, 

 Currie says. Many of these areas are 

 privately owned and already in jeopardy 

 of vandalism and natural deterioration. 



"If it's added to the federal (endan- 

 gered species) list, habitat would be one 

 of the things that we'd address first," 

 Currie says. "But how you look at that is 

 difficult. Trees are privately owned, and 

 the abandoned buildings are privately 

 owned or deteriorating on their own. 

 They're old or they burn. It would be a 

 difficult problem to deal with." 



Mary Kay Clark, N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences 



The bats are often found hanging from rafters or walls in abandoned buildings 

 thai are sited near woods and water. 



In Chowan County, an old school- 

 house that harbored a bat colony 350- 

 strong has been demolished, Trail says. 

 He doesn't know where these bats went. 



This incident and others like it give 

 weight to the argument that timing is 

 critical. 



Roosting and foraging habitat for 

 forest bats are thought to be in jeopardy, 

 Clark says, and conservation efforts are 

 difficult to plan without sufficient 

 knowledge of their habitat needs. 

 "I have a real fear that if we don't 

 learn more about 

 their habitat needs 

 soon, it might be too 

 late. The big-eared 

 bats may occur in 

 healthy numbers 

 now, but there is an 

 awful lot of pressure 

 on mature forests, 

 and these areas are 

 probably critical to 

 their survival, she 

 says. 



"In general, we 

 need to learn more 

 about the species 

 that depend on that 

 kind of habitat in 

 order to develop 

 management plans 

 for preservation and 

 conservation of ma- 

 ture forests. The 

 approach in the past 

 has been crisis man- 

 agement — spend- 

 ing a lot of time and 

 money to save a 

 single species. If we 

 take actions to pro- 

 tect biological diver- 

 sity, we can do the same thing and en- 

 sure that species like the eastern 

 big-eared bat are around for a long 

 time." O 



BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL 



Bats are major predators of night- 

 flying insects, and they pollinate flowers 

 and disperse seeds in ecosystems from 

 rain forests to deserts. Some are essential 

 to other animal and plant species. Yet 

 despite their importance, they are among 



the world's least appreciated and most 

 endangered animals. 



Bat Conservation International is 

 recognized as the international leader in 

 conservation and education initiatives 

 that protect bats and their habitats. For 



more information about bats in your own 

 back yard or far-flung lands, contact BCI 

 at P.O. Box 162603, Austin, TX 78716 

 or call 1-800/538-BATS. 



COASTWATCH 21 



