Presence only habitat suitability model of northern long-eared bat maternity roosts in a managed central hardwood forest

Abstract

This study presents the findings of a habitat suitability model for the northern long-eared bat maternity roosting habitat (Myotis septentrionalis) in a three-county region in southern Indiana. The northern long-eared bat was added to the endangered species list in 2015 and understanding its’ habitat selection at the landscape scale is important to aid in minimizing population declines. Female northern long-eared bats were captured and fitted with transmitters in Morgan Monroe and Yellowwood state forests during the 2012-2015 summer maternity season. These bats were tracked to day roosts where location and habitat information was recorded. We used ArcMap to plot roost tree locations and extract landscape-level environmental variables. MaxEnt was used to evaluate which environmental variables of interest were of greatest importance to northern long-eared bats in our study. Our final model included a map indicating areas most suitable to northern long-eared bats. Our model indicated that elevation, distance to roads, and distance to regeneration openings had the most influence on which habitats bats used for roosting.