Florida Canyon Mines, a subsidiary of Denver, Colo.-based Apollo Gold, has joined forces with the Nevada Division of Wildlife (NDOW), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Bat Conservation International (BCI) in an effort to protect the largest known maternity roost of Pallid bats in the U.S.
The preservation project consists of installing a unique “bat gate” to protect the nesting area at the entrance of a mine in the Fish Creek Mountain Range in Pershing Cty.
The bat gate was designed with a unique locking device and removable bars to keep people out the flight path of the large Pallid bats. Biologists estimate the bat cave is home to more than 250 such bats, more than double the size of the average colony. To keep the bats safe (human scent on the pups could cause the mother to abandon them), the exact location of the cave has not been made public.
The US$9,000 bat gate was designed by Frontier Engineering of Ridgecrest, Calif., and included a $5,000 contribution from Apollo Gold and US$2,000 from both NDOW and BCI.
Pallid bats are essential to Nevada’s ecology because they forage on large insects such as beetles, Mormon crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions and centipedes, most of which are harmful to crops, forests and humans. On average, Pallid bats can consume half their weight in insects, or about 10 grams.
Pallid bats are fairly common at lower elevations throughout the southwest. Their favoured habitat is the rocky outcrops where the dominant vegetation consists of scattered desert scrub such as mesquite and cat’s claw. Roosts are most common in rock crevices and buildings; less so in mines, caves and hollow trees.
“This project demonstrates the importance of mining and environmental agencies working together to protect the native habitat,” says Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association.
— The preceding is from an information bulletin published by the Reno-based Nevada Mining Association.
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