Clemson University Bat Study

From May through August Joy and her assistants work near Franklin, North Carolina. The Appalachian Trail skirts Franklin, passing through the study area. Both the Little Tennessee River and the Cullasaja River run through Franklin. A typical day involves setting out bat detectors, involving a mixture of long and short hikes off of Forest Service roads. Often they use radio telemetry to track a few bats to their roost trees. On about 10-15 nights/month, they mistnet for bats over Forest Service Roads, almost always in dry conditions. They have plenty of breaks because it rains about 50 percent of the time! When they aren’t working with bats, they often find snakes under tin or on the road. The Southern Apps also host the greatest diversity of salamanders in the world!

Bats that typically are caught during field work:	Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) 13 to 25 g Northern Long-eared Bat (Myotis septentrionalis) 6 to 8 g Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus) 7 to 10 g Eastern Small-footed Bat (Myotis leibii) 4 to 6 g Eastern Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis) 8 to 16 g Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus) 18 to 38 g Eastern Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus) 4 to 8 g
Federally-endangered species in North Carolina:	Virginia Big-eared Bat Gray Bat (Myotis grisescens) Indiana Bat (Myotis sodalist)
Rare species here:	Eastern Small-footed Bat (Myotis leibii) Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus) Silver-haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) Rafinesque's Big-eared Bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii)
Banded bats

Department of Forestry and Natural Resources