MAMMALS
N orth Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) biologists conducted surveys to assess impacts to bats from Hur- ricane Helene throughout November 2024. Determining effects to bats will be a long-term effort due to the scope and severity of the storm. The first objective in this effort was to visit bridge and culvert roosts used by the federally endangered gray bat to determine how high floodwaters rose. It is unknown whether bats would have left before the storm, so this first step helps us understand what level of risk bats faced if they were present at the time of the storm. Forty bridges and 8 culverts are known to be used by gray bats throughout western NC. Assessments were made at 39 bridge roosts and all 8 culvert roosts. Two of the three most important bridge roosts, which support between 1,000 and 1,500 gray bats each, were completely flooded from Helene. Additionally, 7 of the 8 culvert roosts were flooded, including a culvert that sup- ports over 200 gray bats. Out of all 47 roosts surveyed, 24 roosts completely flooded, 4 roosts experienced severe flooding but we could not determine if the water reached the roosting area, and 19 roosts did not flood to the area where bats roosted. Based on previous counts near the time of the storm, there could have been as many as 1,200–1,600 gray bats present in roosts that fully flooded during Helene. We will survey gray bat roosts in summer 2025 to compare with pre-Helene counts to better under- stand impacts to gray bats. Assessing Impacts to Gray Bat Roosts from Hurricane Helene by Katherine Etchison, Western Region Mammalogist
Wildlife Diversity Technician, Joey Weber, surveys a gray bat bridge roost after Hurricane Helene.
KATHERINE ETCHISON/NCWRC
52 2024 Wildlife Diversity Program Annual Report
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