O’SHEA, CRYAN & BOGAN: UNITED STATES BAT SPECIES OF CONCERN 
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Spring roosting habits were determined for eastern small-footed myotis captured at night dur¬ 
ing mid-March to mid-May 2007 in an abandoned railroad tunnel within the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Canal National Historical Park in western Maryland (Johnson and Gates, 2008). Forty-seven bats 
were captured and individually marked, including four females tracked with radio transmitters for 
a mean of eight days. These four females all roosted in crevices in rock outcrops on south-facing 
slopes in shale barrens (consisting of talus slopes and rock outcrops with sparse vegetation), main¬ 
ly along the Potomac River Gorge less than 1.1 kilometers from the tunnel (Johnson and Gates, 
2008). Bats roosted solitarily in these crevices and switched roosts daily to alternate sites within 50 
meters of each previous roost. Characteristics of rock outcrops used were similar to randomly 
selected outcrops (Johnson and Gates, 2008). 
A solitary male was found under a rock in early July 1950 in Westmoreland County, Pennsyl¬ 
vania (Doutt et al., 1966). In southern Illinois, Whitby et al. (2013) visually searched 15 exposed 
sandstone outcrops on the Shawnee National Forest for roosting eastern small-footed myotis dur¬ 
ing summer 2011. Eight outcrops had roosting bats, with 29 bats observed, mostly solitary but 
some in groups up to five individuals. Roosting bats included adult females, juveniles, and adult 
males, and all were found under loose rocks lying on exposed bedrock, none in crevices or under 
large boulders (Whitby et al., 2013). 
Crevices in rock outcrops and cliffs also are used as roosts during summer by solitary males 
and by reproductive females, the latter somet im es in small groups (Johnson et al., 2011). Five lac- 
tating female eastern small-footed myotis and five non-reproductive adult males were radio tracked 
to 57 roosts on New Creek Mountain in West Virginia over periods ranging four to nine days dur¬ 
ing June and July 2008. Males and females roosted separately in narrow crevices in rock outcrops 
on sandstone talus slopes or rock fields within clearings for electricity transmission lines, with 53 
roosts (93%) at ground level and four roosts in vertical cliffs (Johnson et al., 2011). Crevice dimen¬ 
sions were about 50 centimeters wide and 39 centimeters deep. Males roosted alone, but females 
roosted solitarily or in groups of up to eight adults. Individuals of both sexes switched roosts an 
average of every 1.1 days, with distances between consecutive roosts averaging about 41 meters in 
males and 66 meters in females (Johnson et al., 2011). Roosts were located in areas with low 
canopy cover and within 15 meters of shrubs or forest edges, with female roosts closer to upland 
water sources than male roosts, and all roosts were located downslope at points ranging from 19 to 
236 meters from the capture site. Comparisons with randomly selected sites were not made. In New 
Hampshire, diurnal roosts used during summer were reported in rock outcrops and in boulder rip¬ 
rap covering the face of a dam (Moosman et al., 2013). 
Summer roosting habits of radio-tracked eastern small-footed myotis were determined in the 
Unicoi Mountains along the Tennessee and North Carolina border (Thomson, 2013). Twenty bats 
were tracked to 17 other roosts from two bridges that provided day roosts in crevices in expansion 
joints. Two roosts were in white pine snags and 15 roosts in large, south-facing rock-like surfaces 
or structures, including nine rock crevices in road cuts and other roosts in loose rock in an old quar¬ 
ry, a boulder within a forest, metal guardrails, and a cement retaining wall; most bats observed in 
crevices in the bridges were solitary males (Thomson, 2013). Bats were tracked from two to 23 
days, averaging 2.6 days continuous residency with movements between successive roosts averag¬ 
ing 721±461(SE) meters (range 19-8,522 meters); most males roosted solitarily (Thomson, 
2013). 
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Moosman et al. (2015) conducted visual searches for 
eastern small-footed myotis on talus slopes during 2013 and spring 2014. They found 23 roosts in 
crevices in and between boulders, including a maternity colony of about 20 bats in a vertical 
crevice in a three-meter-diameter boulder during July and a second maternity colony of unknown 
size in a large six by seven meter boulder in a similar area during June. Similar findings were 
