Bat discovery cancels cave tour

[Ernie Coffman]

This link will take you to a good story on cancelling a cave tour because of finding about 1000-plus bats, which indicates that they might be hibernating earlier than usual because of the weather:
http://www.news-leader.com:80/apps/pbcs ... 007/NEWS01

[Ralph E. Powers]

Glad to see folks put conservation and preservation of the bats over money in their pockets.

[wyandottecaver]

Not sure this was a fee operation. Seemed like educational tours. The really interesting part was the sidebar telling how a sinkhole collapse had ruptured a city water main flooding the cave with silt and creating a small amount of chlorine gas from the chlorinated water which is suspected of driving the bats out in the dead of winter....oops.

[ArCaver]

I'm glad they did the right thing and cancelled the tour. But I thought Gray bats needed cooler temps than would be in the cave at this time to hibernate. Does anyone familiar with this cave know if it is a hibernaculum? Is it a cold air trap?

[Teresa]

I'm glad they did the right thing and cancelled the tour. But I thought Gray bats needed cooler temps than would be in the cave at this time to hibernate. Does anyone familiar with this cave know if it is a hibernaculum? Is it a cold air trap?

I agree, ArCaver. I wonder if the tour goes this upcoming weekend. This is the time when grays start to congregate and move in groups toward their hibernacula. Sequiota is in the middle of Springfield, and near as I know, it is mostly horizontal-- Sequiota Spring flows from it, and it was one of the first state parks, later used as a fish hatchery before it was turned over to local authorities. I don't doubt that bats hibernate there, but I'd be VERY surprised if it is a major Missouri bat hibernacula. Transitory grays often stay a day or two in caves along the way-- sort of like the Motel 6 of the bat migration. I know this because I once found a large colony in a popular, open all year around cave-- took my find to the authorities, and was told...hey, they only stay a day or two.

Like yourself, I can't imagine that gray bats would be actually entering hibernation yet -- we've got about two months of bugs left. Gray bat closures are usually between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15, at this latitude.

[wyandottecaver]

Actually,

upon closer reading a likely explanation emerges. The tours are conducted *spring and fall* thus not in summer when grays have maternity colonies over water. The last tour in the spring saw *some bats* and this was apparently the first fall tour. A warm late summer means that this may have been a maternity colony with pups that had not yet left for a hibernation site.