Gray Bat (Myotis grisescens) Use of Trees as Day Roosts in North Carolina and Tennessee

Stephen T. Samoray^1,*,Shelby N. Patterson¹, Joey Weber², and Joy O’Keefe²

¹Copperhead Environmental Consulting, Inc., 471 Main Street, Paint Lick, KY 40461. ²Center for Bat Research, Outreach, and Conservation. 600 Chestnut Street, Terre Haute, IN 47809.*Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 19, Issue 3 (2020): N49–N52

Abstract
We documented female Myotis grisescens (Gray Bat) from different colonies using 2 separate live trees and 1 snag as diurnal roosts during fall and spring migration periods. The live trees were both Platanus occidentalis (American Sycamore) located along the bank of the French Broad River in Madison County, NC, and the snag was a Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Green Ash) located in a swamp on the western edge of the city of Cookeville in Putnam County, TN. The Gray Bat is considered a year-round cave obligate and, to our knowledge, these observations represent the first documented use of tree roosts by this species.

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