The team annually helps capture and
band or mark bats for research and tracking. Repeated air and ground
searched failed to relocate the bat.
"Using the techniques we're advancing in Pennsylvania, it's possible for
other states to follow migrating bats and identify, protect and manage summer
roosts. Ground teams worked even longer hours. Old
structures housing maternity roosts are being lost. Until we understand what factors are limiting their
survival, they'll remain in trouble.

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The ground crew stayed with it at first, but the
bat's speed soon left them in the slipstream. Daylight flights were from one to four hours; night
flights, five to six hours. Threats to Indiana bats include loss or
disturbance of wintering quarters, declining summer habitat and poisoning from
pesticides. Key roost trees and
foraging habitats are being lost to development and certain timber operations,
because their importance to bats wasn't known. With more than 480,000 members and supporters, Defenders of
Wildlife is an effective leader on endangered species issues.

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During
summer, bats set up maternity colonies under the exfoliating bark of trees and
snags. The goal was to take six female Indianas in an evening, immediately fit
them with radio transmitters and release them. It eventually
began roosting in a hickory snag 92 miles from Hartman Mine."
In Maryland, the Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife and Heritage
Service plans to monitor the two trees Indianas were roosting in. and
Canadian scientists, including 51 from Florida, called on President Bush today
to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling.
"Hundreds of scientists are telling President Bush that throwing the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge open to oil companies will harm wildlife and
permanently disrupt the wild nature of this unique place.

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state. In a letter
to the President, the scientists questioned assertions that oil could be
safely extracted from the Refuge and urged President Bush to "support
permanent protection of the coastal plain's significant wildlife and
wilderness values. Wilson, winner of the National Medal of
Science and two Pulitzer Prizes for his landmark books on social biology.

Non-scientific sites about bats.

roost rehabilitators

It definitely poses some unique
challenges and great opportunities.
The researchers managed to keep track of five bats in the air, until one
took off quickly to the east . For so long, we've been concentrating on hibernation sites, because
their loss and intrusions into them can be so devastating to bats. When
a project's duration is limited by the life of a battery , almost every minute
counts. Our efforts reflected that urgency. As a result, we tracked an Indiana
bat a record 92 miles using telemetry."

NOTE: A series of photos to accompany the following news release are
available from the Game Commission's website (http://www.
"In the end, these incredible birds remind us of a fundamental truth of
biology -- life finds a way, if we just give it enough room.defenders.

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"Bats are tied to trees," Butchkoski explained. Today's announcement is a joyous
affirmation of the system of laws we have established to protect wildlife,
habitat , and environmental quality.
"The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge encompasses 1.

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"
Indiana bats, like most bats, use very different habitats in warm and cold
weather . It was a straight-line
run of 60 miles.
"We were looking to obtain information about travel lanes, resting areas
and foraging locations used by migrating bats, and were committed to tracking
at least one of these bats to its final destination," Butchkoski said. Their largest concentrations occur in
Kentucky, Indiana and Missouri."
Pennsylvania is the summertime home to nine species of bats; six of these
species hibernate in caves and mines here.
The scientists who signed the letter are experts in the fields of ecology,
wildlife and conservation biology, natural resources management and cultural
anthropology.

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PA Game Commission Goes Interstate To Trail Endangered Species; Agency Follows Indiana Bats From a Mine in State's Heartland to Maryland

Fish + Wildlife Service
(USFWS) - when they tried to pass through a metal-framed passage strung
vertically with fishing line at the bat-friendly, gated entrance to Hartman
Mine. "And if
there wasn't any signal to follow , we worked intensively to pick up one.us), click on "Wildlife" then
choose "Endangered Species" and the select "Indiana bat.state.
"The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was one of the first creatures listed as
endangered when the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 and we never
gave up on it. The Act sounded the alarm about this beautiful bird's plight
and enabled us to adjust our research and habitat protection priorities in the
hope that someday the bird would reappear.

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"
Bats were captured in this study - funded by the Game Commission,
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the U.
"Bats try to fly through the lines, get caught between them and drop into
a catch bag," explained Butchkoski. During the
first week of trapping, they caught 2,332 bats in the trap , but only a half
dozen were endangered female Indianas, and they never caught more than two a
night . The limestone mine typically serves as winter quarters for
about 25,000 bats (six species). It crossed Sideling Hill and the Kittatinny
ridges, even Interstate 81. The other was lost on the
lower Susquehanna River, near the Maryland state line. "They need them for
roosting and cover.

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At Canoe Creek State Park, Indiana bats banded at the mine have been
recorded taking up summer residence in the nearby Canoe Creek Church, the
state's only known maternity colony. Holohil Systems, based in Ontario, Canada , managed to build a state-
of-the-art transmitter that met those criteria, and it was used on bats in
this study.S. Six female Indiana
bats were captured, quickly fitted with glued-on radio backpacks and released. But summer
habitat and migration routes are equally important and critical to bats . Limpert said
they also plan to trap bats with mist nets in the areas the transmitter-
equipped Indianas were using before their batteries died, with hopes of
catching a few more."
The scientists said oil development could seriously harm caribou, polar
bears, muskoxen and snow geese -- among other wildlife.

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We plan to work closely with the
Pennsylvania Game Commission - as well as independently - on this important
front to learn more about these Indiana bats that are spending their summers
in Maryland. "But we do know this much, bats are
still in big trouble. It simply does not
make sense to destroy the Arctic Refuge for oil that won't lower prices and
won't make a noticeable dent in our dependency on foreign energy, when it's so
much easier to get the same amount of energy through common-sense conservation
steps," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.

bat biologist

The bats were two of six female Indianas agency biologists and a group of
volunteers and wildlife managers trapped as the bats left their winter
hibernating quarters deep in the Hartman Mine (also known as Canoe Creek Mine)
on Canoe Creek State Park in Blair County."
The demands of this research were exacting on the trackers, both those in
the air and on the ground.pgc."

President, to permanently protect
the biological diversity and wilderness character of the coastal plain of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from future oil and gas development," the
letter concludes.

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, Using aircraft and roving teams
in specially-equipped tracking vehicles, Pennsylvania Game Commission
biologists have trailed federally and state endangered Indiana bats fitted
with radio backpacks from their mid-state hibernaculum to summer roosts just
over the Mason-Dixon line in Maryland. In fact, it was through banding that
researchers were able to link migrating Indiana bats in Kentucky to
hibernacula in Michigan, a discovery that certainly showcased the bat's
potential as a long-distance migrant.

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Biologists
and volunteers frequently pulled double shifts."

S. They warned it could
disrupt the fragile ecosystem of the coastal plain, which they said could lead
to even more widespread injury to wildlife and its habitat. We urge you, Mr.

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Winter finds then hanging from the ceiling or sides of a cave or mine
as they hibernate through a time when insects - their only prey - aren't
readily available in the numbers they consume, about 600 per hour.
The long trek documented by the Kentucky bats reinforced a consensus
belief that any research transmitter placed on a migrating Indiana bat would
have to be close to weightless and incredibly small to ensure it didn't impede
flight. That's
why the team concluded it was best to start all six bats at once, which meant
waiting for the mother lode of hibernation-emerging bats to wing it for the
mine entrance. The most common are little and big
brown bats.pa.5
million acres of key wildlife habitat vital to the integrity of the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.

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HARRISBURG , Pa.
Until recently, banding was the only way wildlife managers could track bat
migrations from wintering sites to maternity roosts and vice versa, because
telemetry transmitters were too heavy to place on bats - Indianas generally
weigh a quarter-ounce or less. It finally came to rest atop South Mountain
overlooking Caledonia State Park in Franklin County.
Two other bats were trailed to the south. "Two
bats led us to previously unknown Maryland roosts and continued to provide
information on habitat usage after they arrived and until their transmitter
batteries died. Changing habitat is the most significant problem bats face."
For more information on the Indiana bat, please visit the Game
Commission's website (http://www.

Ivory Billed Woodpecker Discovery Cause for Celebration Conservationists Say

The signers
categorically rejected the notion that the impacts of drilling could be
confined to a limited footprint, as pro-drilling forces claim, noting that the
effects of oil wells, pipelines, roads, airports, housing facilities,
processing plants, gravel mines, air pollution, industrial noise, seismic
exploration and exploratory drilling would radiate across the entire coastal
plain of the Arctic Refuge.

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That the researchers were able to track these Indianas to their summer
habitat makes this project a successful one. An attempt two years ago failed
to follow the migrating bats to the finish line.pa. WASHINGTON, The following is a statement of Jamie
Rappaport Clark, Executive Vice President, Defenders of Wildlife and Former
Director , Fish and Wildlife Service:

"Today's compelling evidence of ivory-billed woodpeckers in protected land
near the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas is cause for
celebration, and for reflection on what we've done right to protect the land
that has been a hidden home to these mysterious birds for decades. More Than 1,000 Scientists Confirm Drilling in Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge Will Harm Wildlife

51 Florida Scientists on Letter Urging 'Permanent Protection' of Refuge

WASHINGTON, More than 1,000 leading U.

bat bats

"This is very
significant; it's a whole new ballgame for us. "It came with a battery life of 21 days,
which we believed would cover just about any Indiana's trek from wintering
grounds to its summer habitat. The aircraft - already aloft -
was radioed to pick up pursuit. Searches were obstructed by restricted
flight zones and interference believed to be caused by a nearby electrical
power plant.org/den), Defenders of Wildlife's electronic update and
action alert network.

bats piles

The fieldwork provides the first
concrete documentation that Indiana bats summer in Maryland.
"We always suspected Indiana bats were here in the summer, but we didn't
know," explained Dana Limpert, a biodiversity analyst with the Maryland
Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife and Heritage Service. The rest of the entrance was blocked off with plastic. There was as much a possibility that these bats would head to the
Canoe Creek Church - where Indianas have been found repeatedly in recent years
- as there was that they would take off for parts unknown.
"When there was action, we had to stay with it," Butchkoski noted. They are found sporadically
throughout the eastern United States.
"The Pennsylvania Game Commission graciously loaned Maryland coded
armbands and transmitters to place on any Indiana bats we capture , as well as
telemetry equipment," Limpert explained. "If we can net a few and get fresh
transmitters on their backs, it's possible that we can find or confirm a
maternity colony.

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It would have been too expensive - as well as time-consuming - to deploy a
search aircraft and tracking teams in vehicles for only a couple bats.
"We're just starting to understand the big picture with bats , and there's
still much to learn," Butchkoski said.
For a copy of the letter text and list of signers, go to
http://www.

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Today, the
importance of our National Wildlife Refuge System gained new meaning as our
efforts to protect one of America's wild places yielded a true miracle of
nature . Lost to us for
more than 60 years, the ivory-billed woodpecker hung on in one of the few
places we set aside for wildlife. To stay current
on hot topics in wildlife conservation, subscribe to DENlines
(http://www.

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5 grams, but preferably 7 grams, to ensure they were physically
capable of flying unimpeded with these transmitters."
Although the Game Commission has been banding bats in Hartman Mine for
about six years, it was unclear where any transmitter-equipped Indiana bat
would go. First, the bat flew over Lock Mountain, then
Tussey Mountain and Raystown Lake. The next night , the bat left South Mountain, toured the
Gettysburg battlefield and entered Carroll County, Maryland . One of these also entered
Maryland and began roosting near Taneytown in a large shagbark hickory tree, a
textbook site for an Indiana bat maternity roost.

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They often migrate between their winter and summer habitats, but not
always.
"This transmitter weighs less than a paperclip, but can transmit a signal
up to three miles," said Cal Butchkoski, a Game Commission nongame biologist
who headed up the research project."
Indiana bats were one of the first bat species in America to be recognized
as endangered by the federal government.pgc. Now the protections provided by
the Endangered Species Act and the system of laws that protect the place it
calls home, take on even greater significance as we continue the hard work of
bringing this magnificent bird back from the brink of extinction.

Especially watching, rehabilitation and amateur research.

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"We wanted female bats that weighed at
least 6.
The research team quartered in a cabin provided by the state Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources at Canoe Creek State Park, and began
trapping at the Hartman Mine entrance in the second week of April.us) by
clicking on "Release #51-05.

Florida Scientists Say No to Arctic Refuge Drilling

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That mass exodus came the night of April 17,
when thousands worked their way toward the rigged entrance. Indiana bats, in particular, are dependent on multi-aged
forests because they frequently roost under the bark of trees, such as that
found on dead snags and shagbark hickories. All are suffering from mounting habitat deficiencies, even though
they now receive more management attention and public compassion than they
ever have. They include Edward O.defenders.org /newsroom

Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation organization
recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and
its habitat.