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PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 65, Supplement I 
were found hibernating in a dry passage within a cave in Missouri during March 1971, and a sin¬ 
gle male was found hibernating in the same area of the cave in November 1971 (Gunier and Elder, 
1973). Records of use of two caves in Missouri by one and 20 individuals, including some appar¬ 
ent use as hibemacula, were reported by LaVal and LaVal (1980). Single bats also have been taken 
from hibemacula during winter in mountainous areas of West Virginia (Johnson, 1950; Krutzsch, 
1966). Summaries of counts at 42 hibemacula in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and 
West Virginia over multiple years revealed 25 caves used by this species, with total counts in any 
one hibemaculum ranging from 0 to 721 prior to the advent of white-nose syndrome, and 0 to 485 
afterwards (Turner et al., 2011). 
In a cave in Renfrew County, Ontario, Hitchcock (1945) counted eastern small-footed myotis 
seen hibernating in winter from 1942 to 1945 and noted a range of 30-142 bats, about equally 
divided between males and females. Earlier observations in two other caves in Ontario and Que¬ 
bec during winter noted only two and four hibernating individuals (Hitchcock, 1941). Over an 
extended period of 23 years of winter observations at five structurally simple hibemacula in 
Ontario and Quebec (during which most bats seen were banded), Hitchcock (1965) reported this 
species as ranking third in abundance, with 626 bats banded compared to 5,236 bats of four other 
species. The largest reported winter counts at single Ontario caves were 142 individuals in 1944 
and 113 bats in 1953 (Hitchcock 1949, 1965; Hitchcock et al., 1984), in contrast to a recent maxi¬ 
mum of 721 bats counted at a cave in New York during the year 2000 (Turner et al., 2011). Two 
maximum records of movements between winter hibemacula and summer colony sites in Ontario 
were reported to be 16 and 19 kilometers (Hitchcock, 1965). 
Griffin (1940) tabulated numbers of hibernating bats banded in caves and mines in New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York from about 1934-1939: eastern 
small-footed myotis ranked last among six species, numbering 11 of 11,739 bats banded. It is 
unknown what biases were involved in choosing individuals to be banded, but these now-histori¬ 
cal data may be suggestive of the comparative rarity of this species in the region, or their use of 
sites other than caves as hibemacula. The latter was suggested as a possibility for northeastern bats 
in general by Griffin (1945). 
Although caves have historically been a research focus as winter hibemacula for eastern small¬ 
footed myotis, it has been suggested that they may also choose rock crevices for overwintering 
(Johnson and Gates, 2008). Saugey et al. (1993:103) speculated that “rock glaciers” or “rock 
rivers” (talus slopes) might provide winter roosts in Arkansas in the absence of caves. Some species 
of bats in the western U.S. and Canada are known to use rock crevices as winter hibemacula 
(Lausen and Barclay, 2006; Neubaum et al., 2006; Klug-Baerwald et al., 2017). Findings of roost¬ 
ing individuals under rocks and in crevices away from caves during spring and autumn months also 
may suggest winter hibernation in such situations (see below). 
Warm Season Roosts in Crevices, Under Rocks, and in Caves and Tunnels: Roosts of east¬ 
ern small-footed myotis have been found in crevices in rock outcrops from early spring through 
autumn. Two individuals were reported roosting under a large flat rock at the edge of a quarry in 
Tennessee at the end of April (Tuttle, 1964), and a single bat was taken in a cave in western North 
Carolina in March (Adams, 1950). Up to 26 individuals were observed scattered along walls and 
in small crevices of a cave used as a hibemaculum in West Virginia in late March and early April 
1961 (Krutzsch, 1966). Two (one male, one female) were found roosting together in torpor under 
a 0.5-meter-diameter sandstone rock on a sheet of exposed sandstone bedrock in early November 
2005, the first verified record of the species in Illinois (Steffen et al., 2006). For several years the 
only record of this species in Missouri was from beneath a stone on a hillside observed during early 
October 1949 (Barbour and Davis, 1969). 
