Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Virginia
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Because of White-nose Syndrome, northern long-eared bat populations are largely extirpated in interior East (Reynolds et al. 2016). Some low-density northern long-eared bat populations persist along the Atlantic Coast in coastal Massachusetts, Long Island, southern New Jersey, the DC-metro area and southeastern Virginia into North Carolina. Working hypotheses for persistence suggest shorter hibernation periods relative to interior populations and less exposure to Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) from using aberrant hibernacula such as anthropogenic structures and forested wetlands. That said, populations north of southeastern Virginia are exposed to Pd, and multi-year evidence from Long Island and the DC-metro area suggest maternity colony collapse with fewer returning adults and low rates of juvenile recruitment mirroring processes observed in the interior. Genetic analyses show a connected clade along the I-95 corridor from coastal North Carolina to southern New Jersey distinct from interior populations. It is plausible a source-sink dynamic occurs whereby bats in coastal Virginia and North Carolina or southern New Jersey where suitable summer maternity habitat and forested wetland overwinter habitat exists periodically “supply” bats to the DC-metro area that are reproductively successive in some years. Long-term acoustic research previously supported by this USGS program does show winter presence in the DC-area, but more of a strong pulse of southward activity suggestive of fall migration. Summer maternity habitat for northern long-eared bats from the stand to landscape level has been described for southern coastal areas and the DC-metro area but these data do not exist for southern New Jersey, nor does overwintering habitat anywhere from New Jersey to North Carolina other than anecdotal accounts. The data gaps relative to either summer day-roost use and overwintering hibernacula use mid-Atlantic wide are problematic for state and federal land managers tasked with conserving northern long-eared bats. Similarly, additional data are needed to more conclusively determine the location and spatial extent of viable populations versus those either in decline or that result from a temporally and latitudinally variable source-sink dynamic for which data from New Jersey is essential.