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Show BATS OF THE CARLSBAD CAVERN 329 Their bodies were cold and apparently lifeless, their respiration and circulation reduced to' the minimum, and all the bodily functions greatly retarded. Unfortunately, I had no thermometer with me, but the temperature of the rooms was apparently about 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the bodily temperature of the bats approximately the same. Here the bats had hung all winter, nourished by their store of fat and bodily fluids and still in good condition. When brought out into the warm air they soon uncoiled their ears, stretched their wings and legs, and when handled opened their little red mouths and squeaked protest-ingly. Some which were kept for several days in a cloth bag hung up in my room were warm and active during the daytime, but when the temperature dropped below 60 degrees, as it usually did at night, they rolled up their ears, became cold and torpid again, and in the morning were in a state of hibernation (see page 322). The Large Pale Bats, Antrozous pallidas, are common bats of the region, but none was found alive near the cave, or nearer than Carlsbad, 26 miles distant. In summer they are generally found living in houses, barns, cliffs, and small, dry caves, but little is known of their winter resorts. In Slaughter Canyon, about 15 miles west of Carlsbad Cavern, dozens of their decaying bodies were found in an iron water tank at the goat ranch, where they had fallen in while drinking and had drowned. The tank was about 20 feet across and only 5 feet deep, but these large bats evidently could not drink from the surface of the water so quickly as to be able to rise again before striking the sides. No smaller bats were found in the tank, although many came to drink. A number of bat skulls or jaws were found among the owl pellets on the floor of the Bighorn Cave, in the west branch of Slaughter Canyon, where they may have been roosting, or may have been brought in by the Great Horned Owls which nest in the cave. The Large Brown Bats, Eptcsicus fus-cus, were represented in the Carlsbad Cavern by an old skull and wing bones found on the floor of the deepest room, where they had lain for many years. Among the numerous bats seen outside, flying about at night, they may have been common, but only in Slaughter Canyon were any specimens taken. Here they were apparently the commonest bat, coming in by dozens to drink at the water tank in the evening and approaching from the direction of the large, open Slaughter Cave near there (see page 325). In summer these bats are found mainly in the higher, timbered zones in the mountains, from New Mexico to Canada, and across the middle part of the continent, where they are an abundant species, especially in the forested regions. It seems probable that they come down to this level to find comfortable winter quarters, either in the caves or far back in cracks and crevices of the canyon walls. SILVERY-HAIRED BATS BREED IN CANADA At Oak Spring, from which we obtained water for camp use while working in the cave, one of the Silvery-haired Bats, Lasionyctcris noctivagans, was obtained by Dana Lee as it came in to water, on the evening of April 12, and a few days later a couple of others were seen in Walnut Canyon, near there. Their very black color throughout renders them conspicuously different from other bats when thev first begin to fly, in the early twilight, for the silvery frosting on the back does not show while they are on the wing. They are northern bats of migratory habits, breeding mainly in the Canadian Zone of the mountains or far north, and moving, at least in part, to lower levels or lower latitudes for the winter. There are few records of their occurrence in New Mexico, but some of the caves of this region may afford just the right degrees of temperature and humidity required for their winter sleep. Any cave that offers winter quarters for these defenders of our northern forests should be given special protection. The House Bat, Myotis incautus, was represented in the lowest room of the great cave by several fragments of old skulls which may have been there for many years, but in another cave near Carlsbad about 1,000 of these bats were hanging to the low roof within easy reach of my hand. They were readily photographed in a very lively moving picture, |
