3.7 Mammals
impacted by wind turbines. It is foreseeable that increased wind farm development in North Carolina will have adverse impacts on local and migratory bat populations.
Te high-elevation forests inhabited by Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel are threatened by climate change and mortal- ity of Fraser Fir and Eastern Hemlock. Te Southern Flying Squirrel has crept upslope, threatening to infect populations of the Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel because it is a vector of the Strongyloides robustus nematode (Weigl 2007) . Tere is the threat of hybridization between Northern and Southern Flying Squirrel where they overlap (Garroway et al. 2010) . Open corridors through
Rafnesque’s Big-eared Bat (USDA Forest Service) https://www.fickr.com/photos/usdagov/12838157104/ Used under license CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
forests, such as roads with a width that exceeds the gliding ability of a fying squirrel, can inhibit dispersal (Kelly et al. 2013) . In some areas, Carolina Northern Flying Squirrels are threatened by residential development. Residential and commercial development ranked high as a research priority for many species, but especially for the Southern Appalachian Woodrat, the Southern Bog Lemming, Buxton Woods White-footed Deermouse, and the Southeastern Bat. Te impacts from dis- ease also ranked high in the threat category for the Eastern Small-footed Bat, Little Brown Bat, Northern Long-eared Bat, Indiana Bat, and Tricolored Bat. 3.7.7 Additional Information Currently, the USFWS Red Wolf Recovery Program is under internal review. Interbreeding with the Coyote (a species not native to North Carolina) has been recognized as the most signifcant and detrimental threat afecting restoration of Red Wolves (USFWS 2015) . Coyotes are found in all 100 counties of the state and pose a predatory threat to pets, livestock and native wildlife. On March 18, 2015, the NCWRC adopted a permanent rule to list the Red Wolf as a threatened species. Te NCWRC worked collaboratively with USFWS and other partners to develop a surveil- lance and response plan for WNS in bats (NCWRC and USFWS 2013) . Te plan objective is to coor- dinate the conservation community’s strategy for addressing WNS as it relates to disease surveillance and response, population monitoring, and research in North Carolina.
Bat Conservation International (BCI) is an organization that was developed to conserve bat species and their habitats. It works with local, regional, national, and multinational
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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