This grant will be subawarded to rogers state university

The purpose of this project is to conduct a foraging and roost characterization study for tcbs on the deep fork national wildlife refuge, a public area located in central oklahoma that is dominated by bottomland hardwoods and wetlands. Since identifying TCB maternity colony roosts is a priority, emphasis will be placed on capturing reproductive (lactating) females. Field activities will occur in june 2024 at pre-determined sites of suitability, where mist-nets will be deployed to capture bats and out-fit them with transmitters. After captured tcbs are out-fitted with transmitters, locations of radio-tagged bats will be obtained via azimuths gathered at multiple locations. Additionally, located day roosts for tagged tricolored bats will be characterized and identified to species. The objectives of this project are: 1) provide an estimated sized for home range and core foraging areas for individual tricolored bats 2) characterize summer roosting locations, both at the roost tree and forest stand level, for individual tricolored bats, especially reproductive females. In preparation for mist-net deployments, the principal investigators from environmental solutions and innovations and rogers state university will perform reconnaissance on the deep fork national wildlife refuge to identify suitable locations determined to have the highest potential success rate for capturing tricolored bats (tcbs). After suitable locations are identified, mist-netting on the deep fork national wildlife refuge will be conducted for up to five nights in june 2024 with a focus on capturing up to 10 tcbs. Water features will be sampled to maximize capture, and a minimum of four double or triple high setups will be deployed each night. Bats will be added incrementally to the project in two groups of five bats. Using permatype medical cement, a lotek picopip AG190 transmitter (0.21 gram) will be glued to each captured BAT s sub-scapular area. Transmitter batteries typically last for four days. Bats will be tracked for up to five nights after transmitter attachment. Triangulated and biangulated locations of radio-tagged bats will be obtained from fixed positions. Azimuths will be gathered from four to five stationary locations, for up to four hours per night. Synchronized azimuths will be taken every two minutes from each telemetry station. When a frequency is detected, an azimuth will be taken in the direction of the strongest audible or numerical reading on the receiver. Locations will be derived from azimuth data using program loas. Home range and core-foraging areas will be compiled in adehabitat package in program r. The fixed-kernel (FK) density estimation method (uniform distribution) will be used with least-squares cross validation for all group-level and individual-level home range (95 of locations) and core-use area (50 of locations) analyses. Metrics of habitat use (binomial GLM), distances traveled from roosts, and telemetry error will be included. Daytime roosting locations for tagged bats will be located each day after BAT capture and transmitter attachment. Roosting areas will be prioritized instead of exact roost trees, given the difficulty in identifying exact locations. Typical vegetation plot metrics will be recorded for analysis. If the tree can be identified, the roost tree will be identified to species and diameter at breast height (DBH) will be measured using a DBH tape or biltmore stick. The approximate height at which the BAT is roosting and the general condition of the roost tree (dead, live, dying, bark cover, etc.) will be noted. Additionally, a description of habitat near the roost tree would be recorded. Bats will be tracked for a maximum of four hours per day or until the BAT is found for up to five days after the date of capture or until the transmitter is shed or fails. No emergence counts will be conducted, unless a sizeable cavity is delineated.