{"id":11770,"date":"2012-07-03T20:00:02","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T01:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=11770"},"modified":"2012-07-03T16:43:37","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T21:43:37","slug":"austin-peay-university-students-conduct-important-research-on-the-bats-at-dunbar-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2012\/07\/03\/austin-peay-university-students-conduct-important-research-on-the-bats-at-dunbar-cave\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay University Students conduct important Research on the Bats at Dunbar Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – On a muggy evening in late June, several Austin Peay State University graduate and undergraduate students hiked up to the mouth of Dunbar Cave in the hopes of finding a few bats.<\/p>\n

The group brought with them a large Harp trap, consisting of a metal frame inset with rows of thin fishing line, and three high-frequency microphones and computerized recording units. After setting up their equipment, they sat in the cool dark of the cave opening and waited.<\/p>\n

\"APSU<\/a>

APSU graduate student Veronica Mullen and former APSU graduate student Josh Schulte prepare for a night of monitoring bats at Dunbar Cave.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cSometimes bats fly over nets, so what we\u2019ve done is set up three separate ultra sound recorders around the entrance of the cave,\u201d then-graduate student Josh Schulte said. \u201cThe high frequency acoustic monitoring is much more likely to record any bats in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several decades ago, the students probably wouldn\u2019t have needed the traps or the high-tech microphones. Thousands of bats once roosted inside the cave and could easily be seen fluttering out over the adjacent Swan Lake. That, unfortunately, is no longer the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we began our work here, there were very few bats, simply a single bat or two,\u201d Dr. Andrew Barrass, principal investigator for the \u201cBat Project\u201d with the APSU Center of Excellence in Field Biology, said. \u201cWe have been working since 2005 to try and restore bat populations in the cave. In June 2006, the Dunbar Cave State Natural Area built a new \u2018bat friendly\u2019 cave entrance gate, and they were interested in us tracking the progression of bats slowly coming back into the cave.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news is that since the \u201cBat Project\u201d began, the students\u2019 data shows a steady increase in a few bat populations. The bad news is that the population of one particular species, known as the Little Brown bat, has declined in recent years. Its disappearance is likely the result of a major ecological disaster afflicting bat populations nationwide known as White Nose Syndrome (WNS). The fungal disease has led to the death of about five to seven million bats in North America in only the last four years.<\/p>\n

In 2010, then-APSU graduate student Seth McCormick discovered a Little Brown bat with the WNS fungus while conducting field research in Dunbar Cave. The site was quickly closed off to the public, but state officials such as the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, recognizing the important work APSU students were doing, have allowed them rare access to the cave in order to continue their research.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cI got a nice email the other day from the state\u2019s Natural Areas program,\u201d Barrass said. \u201cIt said they\u2019d like for us to expand our work. Not reduce our work, but expand our work. We\u2019re one of the few universities researching bats within a cave.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spread of WNS has closed many caves nationwide and limited important research on bat behavior.<\/p>\n

The APSU students are now involved in research with possible major ramifications. That\u2019s because little is known about White Nose Syndrome, but its effect on agriculture and the economy could be devastating. Bats eat tons of insects each year, providing a major benefit to the agricultural economy. A recent article in the journal \u201cScience,\u201d co-authored by University of Tennessee professor Gary F. McCracken, suggests that the \u201closs of bats in North America could lead to agricultural losses estimated at more than $3.7 billion\/year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The APSU students are working closely with McCracken and his graduate students to test bats more often for the WNS fungus during cave surveys. Dunbar Cave, however, has proven to be a bit of an anomaly. Unlike most bat roosting sites infected with WNS \u2013 where bat populations rapidly collapse with a near 100 percent mortality rate \u2013 Dunbar Cave\u2019s population, aside from the Little Brown bat, is increasing. The cave\u2019s Tricolor bat, or Eastern pipistrelle, has continued to increase since the APSU \u201cBat Project\u201d began. State officials have tasked APSU students to see if that trend is continuing.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The entrance to Dunbar Cave.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had the mortality that most other sites have,\u201d graduate student Veronica Mullen said. \u201cWe\u2019ve also seen an increase in females. Their presence is more reproductively significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hope is with increasing numbers of females being trapped, that will mean the populations are accepting the cave and populations will grow. More females suggests more opportunities for mating, which in turn mean more bats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (state officials) are also hoping we find evidence of Gray bats using specific cave chambers,\u201d Mullen said. \u201cThey\u2019re federally endangered bats. They historically used Dunbar Cave, but due to the fire and human disturbance, we haven\u2019t seen signs of them in many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, vandals set fire to Civil Defense boxes stored inside the cave. When the flames were finally put out, investigators found thousands of tiny bat skeletons littering the cave floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope with the recent cave closure and with less human disturbances, there will come an influx of more species,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During cave surveys early this year the students identified several Long Eared bats using a cave chamber. It was the first time this species had been identified in the cave.<\/p>\n

Their \u201cBat Project\u201d research and success has led to a growing interest in the field among a new generation of APSU students. Alisha Andrews, a junior biology major, recently joined Mullen on some night excursions to Dunbar Cave.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cBeing an undergraduate, that night was really awesome that I could come out to the cave and work with graduate students,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m told that not a whole lot of people are studying this right now, so it\u2019s good to be a part of something that can make such a big impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another senior biology major, Alyssa Moe, assisted with banding captured bats.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people simply don\u2019t understand how complex bat behavior really is,\u201d she said. \u201cThey communicate to each other in milliseconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the years since McCormick discovered the bat infected with WNS, a few new cases have been detected inside Dunbar Cave. And even when bats miraculously survive, the results of WNS aren\u2019t pleasant.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the bats we capture are generally healthy and have beautiful golden brown fur coats,\u201d Barrass said. \u201cYet, some of these recent captures show the signs of skin necrosis and infection caused by WNS fungus. Often the fungus will invade the bat\u2019s skin cells and kill chunks of tissue, leaving holes in the bat\u2019s wings.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Barrass and his students continue their research, hoping that the fungus doesn\u2019t destroy the bats and all their years of hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of sad,\u201d Schulte said. \u201cWith White Nose Syndrome killing so many bats and seeing what the bats are going through, what if this is the one of the last opportunities we have to study these highly intelligent creatures?\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the bat research taking place at Dunbar Cave, contact the APSU Center of Excellence for Field Biology at 931.221.7019 or the Bat Project website at www.apsu.edu\/bat.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – On a muggy evening in late June, several Austin Peay State University graduate and undergraduate students hiked up to the mouth of Dunbar Cave in the hopes of finding a few bats. The group brought with them a large Harp trap, consisting of a metal frame inset with rows of thin fishing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[15410,15414,15415,15408,23,15409,7207,262,15405,2744,15413,825,168,596,1982,15412,514,15407,15416,15411,15404,4368,7965,2637,5138,3633,15403,3884,15406],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-33Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11770"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11772,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770\/revisions\/11772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}