Endangered bat species captured in North Carolina for first time in more than 10 years

RALEIGH, N.C. — Biologists have captured federally endangered Indiana bats in North Carolina for the first time in more than a decade, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

The bats were discovered earlier this year during surveys in the Nantahala National Forest in Graham County. Researchers with the Wildlife Resources Commission, U.S. Forest Service and Brown Environmental were searching for bat colonies that have survived white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has severely reduced bat populations.

Officials said the last Indiana bats captured during mist-netting surveys in North Carolina were documented in 2015.

Biologists captured five reproductive female Indiana bats. Two were fitted with radio transmitters and tracked to a maternity roost in a dead eastern hemlock tree in the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness Area, where researchers counted 24 bats leaving the roost at sunset.

Wildlife officials said they plan to continue monitoring the colony to learn more about the species’ presence in North Carolina.

Indiana bats have been listed as federally endangered since 1967. According to the Wildlife Resources Commission, white-nose syndrome has killed an estimated 6.7 million bats since 2006 and was first detected in North Carolina in 2011.