Deer in the headlights

            The most successful deer hunters in Rhode Island are named Ford, Toyota and Chevy.  And they are driving changes to hunting rules in the state.

Although it’s unintentional, cars and trucks kill more than 1,000 deer per year in the Ocean State, and those numbers are growing. Since last March, there have been more than 1,100 vehicle collisions with deer – a 9 percent increase over the previous year – with the most dangerous areas being the busy roadways in the coastal communities from Cranston to South Kingstown. Major highways throughout the state are also frequent deer collision zones, especially Route 295.

Ruthanne Applegate’s experience is typical.

“I was driving on Route 1 in Charlestown at night, and I didn’t even see the deer until his little face was right in the corner of my windshield,” she said. “It was probably a young one, and it tumbled down the side of the car and broke the mirror off. There’s no way it survived.”

The incident caused $6,000 damage to Applegate’s Subaru Impreza and left her frightened and sad.

White tailed deer photo by Kenneth Cole Schneider

            According to Brian Tefft, the wildlife biologist responsible for tracking deer statistics for the RhodeIsland Department of Environmental Management, October to December is prime time for auto strikes with deer. “That’s breeding season, and the males are roaming around widely and chasing females,” he said. “There’s also a lesser peak that occurs in June and July right after the birthing season when mothers are moving around with their fawns.”

            Tefft said the state’s management strategy for reducing the number of deer in the region is largely motivated by a desire to reduce the number of vehicle collisions. Hunting rules have been liberalized in the coastal communities where the human and vehicle populations are greatest and where deer strikes are most abundant. But those densely populated areas are also where hunters have the most difficulty finding a legal place to hunt, which makes it harder to manage the deer population than in the more rural regions of Rhode Island.

Based on Tefft’s statistical index of what is considered an acceptable number of deer collisions, the northern and western parts of Rhode Island have relatively few collisions – fewer than the statewide target of 1.5 per unit of habitat. But most coastal communities in the West Bay have twice that many, and Warwick and Cranston have four times as many as the index suggests is acceptable.

            The problem is that Rhode Island is home to more than 16,000 deer or about 15 deer per square mile. It’s a healthy, well-fed herd, but there are simply far too many of them for the habitat – and the state’s drivers – to safely sustain. Last winter’s brutal cold and continuous snow cover for much of the season caused a significant number of young deer to starve, but the overall population remains robust. And hunters can’t seem to shoot enough deer to keep the herd from growing.

            Jim Gordon of Exeter has been an active deer hunter for more than 30 years, hunting three or four days every week of the hunting season, which runs from September through January. He typically harvests six or seven deer in a good year, but the recently completed hunting season wasn’t good.

            “I hardly saw any deer,” said Gordon, who primarily hunts in the Arcadia Wildlife Management Area in Exeter and on private property in North Kingstown and Hopkinton. “They just weren’t coming out of the woods. I knew where they were, but they just weren’t making themselves visible.”

            Gordon said he put in his usual amount of hunting time but only killed half as many deer. And his hunting buddies struck out entirely.

            Gordon’s experience was typical of hunters throughout the state, according to Tefft. It was a good year for acorn production and other natural foods that deer eat deep in the woods, so the deer didn’t find it necessary to wander to the edges of the state’s forests – where most hunters were waiting for them – in search of food.

            As a result, Rhode Island’s deer harvest, which runs from September to January in most of the state, declined by 20 percent in the 2015-2016 season to about 1,800 animals. That follows a year when the number of deer harvested was down by 13 percent (although the previous year was a near record-high). Nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut have experienced similar declines in deer harvest numbers in recent years.

            Tefft said that deer hunting hasn’t declined much in popularity in recent years, as it has in some parts of the country. The state continues to sell about 20,000 deer hunting permits each year, and about 9,000 hunters participate. Interest in archery hunting has even increased. Yet deer remain abundant.

            Vehicle collisions aren’t the only reason for reducing the deer herd in Rhode Island, however.  As every gardener knows, deer love to munch on a wide variety of cultivated plants and shrubs in residential landscapes, and as a result, Tefft said that damage complaints are very high in some areas. The state also seeks to reduce the deer herd to reduce the ecological impact deer have on other wildlife species from their consumption of native plants and shrubs.

            Part of the challenge of using hunting as the primary means of managing the state’s deer herd is that most hunters want to shoot a trophy buck rather than one of the 8,000 does in the state that are likely to give birth to twins in the spring. If more hunters harvested does, the state’s deer herd would be smaller and much easier to manage, and there would be fewer automobile collisions.

            “We’ve liberalized the rules in some areas to encourage people to harvest female deer, but 94 percent of hunters take only one or two deer, and they mostly take males, which means they aren’t helping us manage the herd,” Tefft said.

            Jim Gordon is doing his part, though. “I’ll take whatever walks out of the woods,” he said. “If it’s a doe, that’s fine with me. I can’t eat an antler.”

Block Island Sidebar: 

            The deer situation on Block Island has reached alarming levels. Brian Tefft said that the population of 80 deer per square mile – compared to 15 on the mainland – is “not a healthy number for people, habitat or anything else.” 

            Officials on the island are aggressively trying to manage the population, and they have even taken the controversial step of paying hunters for killing deer. Despite opposition, the $150 bounty the town paid for each tail resulted in 387 deer killed last year. Coupled with those that didn’t survive last year’s harsh winter, and the island population was reduced by nearly half. Yet the community still has a long way to go.

            The hunting season on Block Island lasts one month longer than in the rest of Rhode Island – through the end of February – due in part to concerns among residents over the high incidence of Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks that typically reproduce after first feeding on deer. Deer also cause considerable ecological damage on the island, which is home to numerous rare plants and animals. 

This article first appeared in The Mercury on March 29, 2016.

Skunks are amorous and odoriferous

Driving home from work the other day, I saw my first road-killed skunk of the year. And if this year is anything like the last few, it won’t be the last one I see this season. While April showers do indeed bring May flowers, it’s also true that warm weather in March and early April is a certain sign that skunks will turn up dead in the road in great numbers.

I’ve been paying close attention to roadkill lately, and while most of the abundant species like raccoons and squirrels seem to be struck and killed by vehicles regularly throughout the year, with maybe an uptick in fall when the young of the year disperse and food sources get concentrated, that doesn’t seem to be the case with skunks to the same degree. These attractive-but-unpopular animals seem to meet their end on roadways most often in early spring.

March is the breeding season for the region’s only native skunk, the striped skunk, whose black-and-white fur and pungent aroma make it unmistakable. The species lives in a variety of habitats, including mixed woods and brush, and it often forages in fields, lawns, and other clearings. An omnivore, it feeds on a wide variety of insects, grubs, berries, and carrion.

Although skunks will sometimes den up together in winter, for the most part they live solitary lives. During the breeding season, they may travel great distances to seek each other out. This often requires road crossings. Because skunks are largely nocturnal and most wildlife is struck by vehicles at night, they are a common casualty. Young skunks seeking to breed for the first time may be especially vulnerable.

Despite their stink, skunks have a closer relationship with humans than most people realize.

In earlier times, skunk pelts were a valuable commodity in the fur trade. During the Depression, when they were made into hats, gloves, and coats, one skunk pelt could sell for $4 or $5. Their value hasn’t changed much since then, making the animals hardly worthwhile for trappers to bother with. There is a niche market today for their scent glands, which are used in commercial animal lures. One state biologist equated skunk essence to “a long distance call with universal appeal” among many animals, especially fishers.

The decline of skunk trapping may mean there are more skunks today than existed a century ago, but few states conduct skunk population surveys so it’s hard to verify this. One thing is certain, however – skunks undoubtedly benefited from human development of the landscape. Based on roadkill surveys and nuisance complaints, there are believed to be many more skunks per square mile of urban and suburban area than in more natural settings. But their proximity also means the animals are more apt to being struck by vehicles.

Which brings us to one more reason why skunks become roadkill so often in spring – their brazen nature. Skunks just aren’t as cautious as many other wildlife species, especially when love is in the air. Because of their ability to spray a noxious liquid from their scent glands, there are few predators that will attack them. Coyotes may occasionally prey upon them, and great horned owls are expert skunk killers, but the risk of a burning nose and eyes, even temporary blindness, keeps most other predators at bay.

And who would blame them for staying away? The scent was described by author and wildlife artist Ernest Thompson Seton as a combination of perfume musk, essence of garlic, burning sulfur, and sewer gas "magnified a thousand times."

Because striped skunks have little fear of predators, they apparently have little fear of almost anything that moves, including humans. They’re comfortable living around homes and businesses, often building dens beneath abandoned buildings, under residential porches and decks, and beneath woodpiles and stone walls. I like to wander my property at night, listening for owls and staring at the stars, and it’s not uncommon for a skunk to waddle past me during the breeding season. One nearly even stepped on my foot and kept going as if I wasn’t there.

In a similar way, when a car approaches a skunk, the animal brazenly stands its ground. Sadly, it’s a confrontation that the skunk almost never wins.

This article first appeared in the Burlington Free Press on March 25, 2016.

Beware: Frogs crossing!

            The old adage that April showers bring May flowers remains true, even as the planet warms and the timing of many events in the natural world shifts one way or the other. But what is equally true is that March showers bring frogs and salamanders. So we should pay close attention as we drive dark roadways during evening rains this month, because those amphibians will be on their way to and from their breeding ponds, which often means crossing roads. It would be a shame if our vehicles bring their annual migrations to a violent end just before the creatures complete their mission.

            Several species of frogs and salamanders that are crossing roads this month have the remarkable ability to hibernate among the leaf litter and in shallow burrows during the winter, at which time most of the water in their body turns to ice. And yet as temperatures warm, they unfreeze and go about their regular activities. They can do this thanks to their ability to produce a concentrated sugar solution that acts like anti-freeze to prevent damage to sensitive organs. This anti-freeze is triggered when their body temperature falls and their metabolism drops. Sometimes their hearts even stop beating.

            Wood frogs and spring peepers – both small, tan colored animals – are perfect examples. They are best known as the loud-mouthed frogs that congregate in vernal pools and small ponds in March and April as they seek mates and lay eggs. They are often joined by spotted salamanders, which are attractively dressed in shiny black with bright yellow spots. But getting to their breeding ponds is often a dangerous trek, and many don’t make it.

            Compared to birds, many of which may travel thousands of miles to the Tropics and back each year, the migration of local frogs and salamanders is nothing to brag about. A 2005 study by researchers at the University of Rhode Island found that most spotted salamanders only travel about 150 meters from their wintering site to their breeding pond. Yet because of the fragmentation of their habitat by roads and houses, it’s often a trip fraught with danger.

            Their migration typically occurs during nighttime rain storms as the weather warms in mid- to late March, though it got an early start this year due to our unseasonably warm February. (Cold winters like last year – when many breeding ponds were still frozen until April – can delay the trip for several weeks.) If you drive dark roads near wetlands at this time, your headlights will likely illuminate frogs hopping across the road. Please be careful.

            Last April during a warm evening rain shower, I walked a one-mile stretch of road adjacent to a series of ponds near my house, and with flashlight in hand, I found more than 50 wood frogs and spring peepers attempting to cross the road. I escorted each one to safety in the direction they were facing. It’s a good deed that youth groups and other interested parties engage in frequently during this season. And you can, too.

            If you want to get even more involved in studying and protecting our local frogs, become a Frog Watch volunteer and monitor amphibian calls at nearby ponds. The national citizen science project is managed locally by Roger Williams Park Zoo.

            Most important, however, please drive slowly and carefully during evening showers for the next few weeks to avoid migrating amphibians. Thousands of frogs and salamanders will thank you for it.

          This article first appeared in The Independent on March 17, 2016.

Wacky winter weather confounding plants and animals

The weather this winter in southern New England has been far from typical, and it is having serious implications for wildlife and natural history phenomena. The official temperature at T.F. Green Airport on February 1 reached 66 degrees, a record high for the date, but two weeks later on Valentine’s Day it plunged to minus-9, the coldest temperature in Rhode Island in more than three decades. A week later, it was back in the 60s again. And on February 24, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning, the first time it has ever done so in February. That follows a warmer than usual January and record warmth in December.

            The periods of warm weather in February triggered daffodils, crocuses and other early-blooming flowers to sprout a month or more before they usually do. Wood frogs and spring peepers were observed hopping across roads and chirping loudly in vernal pools in many locations during the last week of February, which is also several weeks earlier than usual. And Keith Killingbeck, a professor of botany at the University of Rhode Island, noticed a red maple tree with flower buds expanding almost two months early on February 25.

Crocuses blooming in Providence (photo by Frank Carini/EcoRI)

If the weather remains warm, these plants and animals shouldn’t experience any ill effects. But what will happen if the deep freeze returns, as it often does in March?

“Early spring plants are pretty tolerant of cold temperatures,” Killingbeck said, “but it depends on how cold it gets and how long those cold temperatures last.  It’s in the realm of possibility that flowers could pop open, bloom and get zapped by a long, cold frost and be toast for the season. A lot of trees are susceptible, too. That’s a lot of energy the plants and trees expend for nothing.”

Killingbeck said that such an event would not affect the survival of the plants, but it eliminates an entire year of reproduction.

Frog and salamander reproduction could be affected, too. In a typical year, evening rains in mid- to late March trigger wood frogs, spring peepers and spotted salamanders to migrate from their wintering locations among the leaf litter and in shallow burrows to temporary pools and small ponds, where they mate and lay their eggs. But the warm weather in late February triggered some to begin their migrations several weeks early. The return of winter conditions in March could jeopardize any eggs that have already been laid.

Lou Perrotti, director of conservation programs at Roger WilliamsPark Zoo and an expert on reptiles and amphibians, said that wood frogs are especially cold hearty and will hunker down until the weather is just right. “The males arrive [in their breeding ponds] first and start calling the girls down, but if it is too cold they will not call and the girls will not move,” he said. “So breeding won’t happen until the temperatures and precipitation are optimal.”

It’s not unusual for a thin layer of ice to form on amphibian breeding ponds after the frogs and salamanders have laid their eggs, according to URI herpetologist Peter Paton. Some eggs may die as a result, he said, but those submerged below the surface should survive. And the adult frogs are usually able to avoid being trapped under the ice by exiting the pond.

Paton does worry, however, about repeated cold and warm spells in March. Wood frogs and spring peepers survive the winter by slowing their metabolism, dropping their body temperature, and allowing the water in their bodies to freeze solid. They survive unharmed thanks to the production of a concentrated sugar solution that acts as an anti-freeze to protect their organs.

“But I don’t know how many times they can withstand freezing and thawing in one season,” he said. “They might not do well if they have to keep doing it.”

Plants and amphibians aren’t the only wildlife that seems to be a bit confused by the weather. On February 25, David Gregg, executive director of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey posted a video on Facebook of a group of bees swarming around his bird feeder. He said it appeared as if the bees were licking the sunflower seeds.

“I understand that one of the concerns about global warming is the mismatch between bees and flowers,” he said. “The bees are active because the weather’s warm, but there aren’t any flowers out yet for them. So maybe that causes them to go after alternative food courses such as my bird seed."
Climate change may well be playing a role in the unusual weather this year, but also playing a role is this year’s strong El Nino, which changes weather patterns in complex and unpredictable ways.

"This overriding element of global warming is impacting everything on our planet,” said Killingbeck, “and then on a little less universal scale, the El Nino year on top of that is messing with certain pockets of the globe as well.”

But he said that all is not lost for this year. At least not yet.

“We’re at a critical time right now,” he said. “It all depends on what happens in the next month. It could still get back to normal. If we get back to more seasonable temperatures in March, the plants should do what they usually do in spring. Or we could have 70 degrees in March and all bets are off.

“But just because we’ve had a wacky winter doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t have a normal spring,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in EcoRI on February 29, 2016.

Sandhill cranes becoming regular visitors to Ocean State

            If you happen to spot a four-foot tall, gray bird in Tiverton this winter, you’re not alone in thinking that it looks out of place.  A lone sandhill crane has spent the entire winter in fields around the Seapowet Marsh, and the bird has drawn considerable attention from birdwatchers and other sharp-eyed observers. First spotted in October, it has been seen in the vicinity almost every day for more than four months.

            Sandhill cranes are common birds in the western United States and Canada. They breed in the tundra and prairie regions of Canada and Alaska, as well as in a few scattered locations in the Rocky Mountains, and migrate south in large numbers to winter in California, New Mexico and Texas. A non-migratory flock lives year-round in central Florida.

Sandhill crane in Tiverton, R.I. (Photo by Butch Lombardi)

            Cranes may have been common migrants through the Northeast in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, but not in the last century or so. They are prone to wander, however, especially in the fall, and in recent decades small numbers have been observed along the East Coast, including in Rhode Island, where every few years a bird or two has stopped off for a few days or migrated through the region. But according to Rachel Farrell, a member of the Rhode Island Avian Records Committee, the birds have become annual visitors in the last five or six years and are staying for longer and longer periods.

            Farrell said the increasing frequency of sandhill cranes visiting the Ocean State probably has to do with the species’ eastward range expansion. Cranes were reported breeding for the first time in Pennsylvania in 1998, Maine in 2000, Vermont in 2002, New York in 2003, Massachusetts in 2007 and New Hampshire in 2014. Cranes are not yet confirmed breeders in Rhode Island, though there is speculation that a pair spent last summer on private property in West Greenwich where access to birdwatchers was prohibited.

            Scientists believe there were fewer than 20 breeding pairs in all of New England in the last couple years. Observers tracked a flock of 29 sandhill cranes – both adults and young – traveling through five states in the Northeast during a one-week period in November 2014, beginning in Maine and ending in eastern Pennsylvania. This may have been the first documentation of the migratory route of cranes nesting in northern New England. Small numbers of cranes have also been seen regularly during migration at the cranberry bogs in Carver, Mass.

            But records of sandhill cranes breeding in and migrating through the region doesn’t make this winter’s observation of the bird in Tiverton any less remarkable. While they can survive challenging environmental conditions, they typically spend the winter more than 1,000 miles south of Rhode Island in a much warmer climate.

            “They’re hardy birds, but staying the whole winter is unusual,” said Farrell, who speculates that the Tiverton bird is probably one of those that breeds somewhere in northern New England. “It’s likely a local bird, but no one can really say for sure.”

            Peter Paton, an ornithologist and professor of natural resources science at the University of Rhode Island, notes that “they’re long distance migrants, so this bird may be a bird that strayed from its normal route, which happens sometimes. It’s like it short-stopped its migration and decided to stay.”

            Paton recalls a similar situation two years ago near the URI campus when a sandhill crane, which may have been injured, was observed for most of the winter feeding in a cornfield off Route 138. Late in the season it was joined by a second bird before they both departed the region.

            Is it likely that the sandhill crane in Tiverton will eventually find other cranes and breed, or is this bird destined for a solitary life unconnected to others of its species?

            Paton is optimistic.

            “I thought the bird in Kingston was never going to find anybody, but sure enough another bird showed up and they left together,” he said. “As cranes become more and more common in the region, the chances are greater that they’ll find others of their species and not be loners for the rest of their life.

            “There aren’t a ton of cranes in this neck of the woods, so it’s amazing how they find each other,” Paton added. “It’s one of the mysteries of nature.”

 This article originally appeared in EcoRI on February 26, 2016.

New wildlife refuge to benefit shrub-lovers

            Rhode Island has an abundance of gorgeous coastal vistas and a huge expanse of mature interior forest. In between, however, is a swath of habitat that gets little attention but which is becoming increasingly important, so much so that it may soon become part of a new national wildlife refuge.

The habitat that biologists call “early succession” is the intermediate step between a meadow and a forest, where thickets of berry-laden shrubs, vines and other low-growing vegetation are interspersed with young trees barely tall enough to be called trees. It’s a habitat that five or six dozen species of birds, mammals, insects and other wildlife depend upon for foraging and breeding. And sadly, it’s a habitat that is rapidly declining.

            The wildlife that lives in this shrubby habitat – including ruffed grouse, whippoorwills, New England cottontails, box turtles and monarch butterflies – is often forced to move around a great deal. That’s because 10 or 15 years after the habitat is in an ideal state, it matures into a full-fledged forest and is no longer the ideal habitat it once was for these species. By then, the young trees have grown, the flowering shrubs have been shaded out, and the thicket no longer exists.

New England Cottontail photo by USFWS

            Historically, the habitat for these shrub-loving species was created naturally by beavers damming streams (which eventually killed neighboring trees) or by storms or wildfires. But humans suppress wildfires and trap beavers, leaving very little territory left for the animals. The abandonment of agricultural fields in the last century created a great deal of this early succession habitat, but by now that has become re-forested, too.  Or been developed.

            Artificially creating these thickets often requires cutting down patches of forest and letting them naturally regenerate into shrubby habitat before they become forest again. But plans to cut down anything more than a small handful of trees often run into tremendous public opposition. Most biologists agree that as long as the right trees in the right forest are cut, it can benefit numerous shrub-loving species that are declining precipitously. The wildlife sometimes need the boost after their old habitat has matured into forest and too little new habitat is created to sustain their populations.

Luckily, however, southern Rhode Island has an abundance of naturally occurring thickets that provide feeding grounds and breeding sites for many of these animals. Much of the habitat at the Sachuest Point, Trustom Pond and Ninigret National Wildlife Refuges is this “maritime scrubland” community that tends to remain shrubby for longer periods.

Now the federal government is looking to incorporate more of this habitat into a new refuge called the Great Thicket in parts of seven states. According to Charlie Vandemoer, refuge manager of the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, efforts are underway to identify areas where conserving shrubland and young forest could make a big difference for wildlife.  

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to acquire 3,200 acres for the refuge in southern Rhode Island from willing sellers over the next three decades, and it is seeking public comment on their plans until March 4. It’s an exciting proposal that seeks to permanently protect habitat for species that otherwise get little attention. I, for one, have sent them a letter to endorse the project. And while we’re waiting for the new refuge to become established, we can all plant patches of native shrubs on our own properties to aid the declining species.

This article first appeared in The Independent on February 18, 2016.

Bats wintering in Rhode Island: Seeking refuge from white nose syndrome?

            Several species of bats that spend the summer in Rhode Island have experienced dramatic declines in their populations due to white nose syndrome, the fungal disease discovered in 2007 that infects bats in the caves and mines where they hibernate for the winter.  Little brown bats, for instance, the most abundant species in the region prior to the outbreak and the species most likely to be found breeding in attics and barns during the summer, have declined by about 90 percent in the Northeast, and northern long-eared bats have lost more than 98 percent of their population.

            Perhaps the only good news that has resulted from the disease is that bat biologists have been forced to think out-of-the-box for ways to protect the remaining populations of bats. They’ve begun to re-think the concept of hibernation caves – called hibernacula – in hopes of discovering previously unknown locations where bats may be spending the winter.

            Until very recently, it was not believed that many bats wintered in Rhode Island. Those species that migrate, including hoary, silver-haired and red bats, head south well before the winter freeze. And those that hibernate underground – like little brown, northern long-eared and tri-colored bats – were all thought to migrate to caves and mines in New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. And they do. But, it turns out, not all of them.

            After a biologist in New Hampshire discovered bats hibernating in abandoned man-made structures along that state’s coast, Charlie Brown, the wildlife biologist responsible for bat conservation for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, began to seek out sites where the animals may be over-wintering in the Ocean State.

Little brown bats with white nose syndrome (USFWS)

            “To my knowledge, no effort had been made previously to survey those kinds of sites,” Brown said. “But it got us thinking about what constitutes a hibernaculum. Instead of caves and mines, are there alternative sites that bats might use that we haven’t noticed in the past? And might these places be the last holdouts for the species?”

            Beginning in 2011, Brown began identifying possible facilities, most on state-owned land, that might have the appropriate conditions.

            “Bats are finicky about their environment. Those that typically use subterranean structures to hibernate require a stable environment with high humidity and low temperatures consistently around 35 to 40 degrees in winter,” Brown explained. “There can’t be much airflow through the structure that might change those conditions.”

            He said the bats also require a location that is undisturbed by frequent human visitation.  “Every time they’re aroused, they burn calories,” Brown said.

            After several years of using a headlamp and flashlight to explore abandoned structures throughout the coastal regions of Rhode Island, Brown has identified four structures where small numbers of bats have been found hibernating. A total of less than 100 bats have been recorded at the four sites, with big brown bats the most common species detected. Northern long-eared and tri-colored bats have also been observed.

            Peter August, a biologist at the University of Rhode Island who has studied tropical bats, isn’t surprised that Brown has discovered big brown bats overwintering in Rhode Island. He said that species typically hibernates within 30 miles of their summer roost. “We just don’t notice them here because they’re hibernating,” he said. “If we continue to have warm weather like we have, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people start seeing bats flying around outside this winter.” Finding the other two species, however, is a surprise.

            Brown banded eight of the hibernating big brown bats he discovered, and four of them returned to the same site the following year, which suggests they have a degree of site fidelity. But the small numbers of bats he has found so far may indicate that the structures do not provide optimal conditions for hibernation. And Brown has no idea how long they may have been in use.

“We don’t see skeletons of bats that would suggest that 10 years ago there were many more using these sites than today,” said Brown, who won’t reveal the location of the sites in order to reduce the likely hood of disturbance. “I assume that these facilities became appropriate as hibernacula at some point, maybe because they were abandoned recently or are not used in the same way any more.”

            The DEM biologist will continue searching smaller structures this winter in hopes of finding additional bats.

            “We’d like to find more sites. Bats may use cisterns, sewage systems, military-type structures, summer homes, and other places we haven’t looked at yet,” he said. “We’ve looked at most of the larger structures, but we’re sure there are other smaller places out there.”

            As exciting as it is to find a diversity of hibernating bats in Rhode Island, Brown isn’t convinced that these sites are protecting local bats from white nose syndrome, even after tests of samples collected last year from the structures and from the bats themselves all came back negative.

            “The fungus was not detected, but we can’t say it’s not there,” Brown said. “Given that the bats move around the landscape and interact with bats from infected caves, it’s hard to imagine that our area hasn’t been affected or that we’re insulated from it. That would be nice, but we don’t know that yet.”

            Those who observe a bat in a home or other structure in winter are encouraged to contact Brown at 401-789-7481 or charles.brown@dem.ri.gov. He also monitors maternity colonies in the summer months and asks those with large numbers of bats in their attics or barns in the summer to contact him. And if you find a bat in the living space of your home, he recommends contacting the Rhode Island Department of Health for a health screening, as bats are known to carry rabies and other diseases.

This article first appeared on EcoRI News on February 9, 2016.