Wildlife Diversity Program Quarterly Report for July–September 2025
Counts of Gray Bats Down Following Hurricane Helene by Katherine Etchison, Bat Biologist S urveys to detect gray bats at roost 1200
1000
sites began in March 2025, and continued through summer but are winding down, with a few remaining surveys to be con- ducted in October. Counts of gray bats at
800
600
400
200
0
March April
May
June
July
August September
roost sites are lower than those completed before Hurri- cane Helene significantly impacted western NC, causing over half of known gray bat roosts in NC to be sub- merged in floodwaters. Gray bats use rock outcrops to roost during the active spring and summer seasons, and given their affinity for wetlands, streams, and rivers, they often use crevices in bridges. In fact, almost all known gray bat roosts in North Carolina are bridges. September’s counts at the three most significant roosts were down 60% from the pre-Helene average. During this month, we also observed about 800 fewer gray bats compared to the pre-Helene average in one of the most important roosts. The counts at this bridge typ- ically increase in July through August and peak in Sep- tember. This year, the count stayed roughly the same from July through September. We were encouraged to see a banded gray bat in a Buncombe County culvert that had been originally banded in 2018, indicating this bat survived the storm. We have maintained post-Helene acoustic stations throughout the bat active season and will analyze those data in the coming months. Using multiple sampling methods helps us identify biases of each sampling method to better understand Hurricane Helene’s impact on gray bats.
2025
Avg Pre-Helene
The number of gray bats in 2025 and average pre-Hurricane Helene num- bers of roosting gray bats in a significant roost site in Madison County.
KATHERINE ETCHISON/NCWRC
Above: Wildlife Diversity Technician, Joey Weber, surveys a bridge for gray bats in Buncombe County. Below left: Wildlife Diversity technician, Joey Weber, maintains a bat acoustic detector along the French Broad River in Madison County. Below right: A gray bat roosts with a group of Mexican free-tailed bats in a Henderson County bridge.
KATHERINE ETCHISON/NCWRC
KATHERINE ETCHISON/NCWRC
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