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PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 65, Supplement I 
unknown effects. Longevity records range from at least seven years (Paradiso and Greenhall, 1967; 
Hayward, 1970) to 10-12 years (Hayward, 1970; Cockrum, 1973). 
Mortality Factors: Infant mortality is probably highest during the first few days of life pre¬ 
weaning (Kunz, 1973). Raun (1960) reported a mysterious finding of up to several thousand mum¬ 
mified carcasses and other remains of cave myotis at Valdina Farms Sinkhole, Medina County, 
Texas, in 1959, but with no apparent cause of death. Cockrum (1952) noted six or seven mummi¬ 
fied individuals hanging from the ceiling of a Kansas hibemaculum, also with no apparent cause 
of death. Known mortality factors include deaths due to flooding of caves (high water marks up to 
ceilings in roosts), collapses of rock ceilings above roosting bats (447 dead bats noted in a single 
collapse), subfreezing temperatures (34 dead and dying bats noted in one cave), and human distur¬ 
bance and vandalism at roosts (Humphrey and Oli, 2015). One was discovered killed from colli¬ 
sion with turbine blades at a wind energy facility in northwestern Oklahoma (Piorkowski and 
O’Connell 2010). 
Predation is well documented and predators include hawks, owls, snakes, wood rats, skunks, 
foxes, and ring-tailed cats ( Bassariscus astutus; Cockrum, 1952; Twente, 1954; Hayward, 1970; 
Fitch et al., 1981). Raccoons prey on hibernating cave myotis, with remains of 14 found in a sin¬ 
gle raccoon scat by Twente (1955a), who also reported predation on both adults and young by rat 
snakes ( Pantherophis sp.) in Kansas and Oklahoma during summer. Predation by rat snakes in 
Kansas was previously reported by Hibbard (1934), and a California lyre snake ( Trimorphodon 
lyrophanes ) was reported with a cave myotis in its stomach (Stager, 1942). 
Ectoparasites and endoparasites have been recorded (Eads et al., 1957; Jameson, 1959; Cain, 
1966; Nickel and Hansen, 1967; Whitaker and Wilson, 1974). Sparks and Choate (2000) summa¬ 
rized the literature on parasites of cave myotis and reported multiple species of ectoparasites, ces- 
todes, trematodes, and nematodes. An updated summary of endoparasites was reported by McAl¬ 
lister et al. (2007), and more recent documentation of ectoparasites also has been made (Ritzi et al., 
2001), but to our knowledge no cases of mortality from parasites have been reported for this 
species. 
Rabies inf ections occur in cave myotis (Constantine, 1979; Caire et al., 2014), and a new 
gammaherpes virus has been found in tissues of a sampled individual (Shabman et al., 2016; Host 
and Damania, 2016). Nineteen forms of bacteria have been isolated from body surfaces of this 
species from Oklahoma hibemacula, but none were considered pathological (Zanowiak et al., 
1993). 
The occurrence of environmental contaminants in this species has been studied, but without 
conclusive evidence of direct mortality. Thies and Thies (1997) sampled a summer colony at Eck¬ 
ert James River Cave in Texas in 1993 for residues of organochlorine pesticides and metabolites 
and PCBs. These bats had low concentrations of organochlorine pesticides and metabolites in car¬ 
casses and brains, with DDE below those in Brazilian free-tailed bats roosting in the same cave sys¬ 
tem and far below any suggestive of poisoning. The exposure to cholinesterase-inhibiting pesti¬ 
cides in the diet of a Texas population was verified by the presence of trace quantities of 
organophosphates in guano (Land, 2001). Guano also was analyzed for eight toxic elements in the 
Texas study, with lead found at relatively high concentrations in samples from one cave (Land, 
2001). King et al. (2001) reported unremarkable concentrations of 17 potentially toxic elements in 
five individuals collected near Roosevelt Lake, Arizona in 1998. They also found no organochlo- 
rines other than low amounts of DDE in three individuals from the same sample. 
The occurrence of white-nose syndrome caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans 
has been investigated in cave myotis in western Oklahoma, where the occurrence of the disease 
