The conservation of pollinating BAT populations in the u s mexico borderlands has become a critical conservation issue because of their importance to agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and…

The conservation of pollinating BAT populations in the u s mexico borderlands has become a critical conservation issue because of their importance to agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem function therefore, we will initiate an ambitious and urgent effort to safeguard associations between agave plants, columnar cacti, migratory bats and productive activities, specifically in the most priority cave and mine systems for migratory bats in northwestern mexico the project focuses on the conservation of bats that feed on nectar, fruits and insects associated with agaves and cacti such as the mexican long nosed BAT and lesser long nose BAT, both threatened species with declining populations these two species are the main pollinators of agaves and cacti in the sonoran desert and southwestern united states frick ET AL 2013 the project also benefits 10 other species of gregarious migratory bats such as the mexican free tailed BAT we will work on the conservation of migratory bats that depend for maternity and roosting on 8 natural caves and 7 mines as providers of ecosystem services of vast areas surrounding them in northwestern mexico baja california SUR, sonora and chihuahua although the caves and mines are considered small natural features, they harbor very important concentrations of bats, for which we do not have precise information on the size of their populations, but we know that they are very important, for example, LA cueva on isla EL carmen, is used for maternity of a population of 10,000 female lesser long nose BAT and cueva EL tigre is the refuge of 1 6 million mexican free tailed BAT this network of caves and mines contributes significantly to the conservation of the biodiversity and ecosystem functions of the sonoran desert and southern desert landscapes of the USA areas dominated by columnar cacti such as agaves, saguaros, cardones and pitayos in this proposal we will develop conservation plans for 15 caves and mines used as maternity, roosting and passage sites, to favor the recovery of their populations we will protect the maternity cave on isla EL carmen 1,000 HA in addition, we will implement actions to establish two agave nurseries with an annual production capacity of 50,000 agave and cactus seedlings to be used for reforestation of cave habitats restoration and improve BAT foraging habitat in the vicinity of these caves and mines also physical protection actions signage, fencing or steel gates to reduce disturbance and vandalism in two cave systems and mines, which are serious direct threats to BAT populations also, continue to inventory caves and estimate the size of cave populations identified as important in locations in baja california, sonora and western chihuahua, for which we know their contribution to the conservation of migratory bats is very important, so we will undertake efforts to build local capacity, inventory BAT populations and assess their protection needs