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Bat Inventory at New River Gorge National Park and Preserve 2022 - Open Format Dataset

Metadata Updated: November 13, 2025

In 2022, an estimated 1.6 million people visited New River Gorge (NPS 2023b). To date, there are over 1,600 established rock climbs documented in the New River Gorge area (Mountain Project 2022, Williams 2019). As visitation has increased, NERI has become interested in documenting the presence of bat species and their habitat on and near the cliff face, rim, and base areas to support a park management plan. A total of 51 routes were selected to survey three times throughout the summer of 2022. Cliff line surveys included personnel on-rope rappelling down each selected cliff face to look for bats or bat sign and to collect data on the physical attributes and record habitat information. In addition, a simultaneous acoustic survey for bats was conducted at the base of each survey route. Although no bats or bat sign were documented, analysis of the acoustic data in concert with the environmental factors revealed that bats were detected at more highly climbed walls versus unclimbed walls, at least northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis) were more likely to be detected near less vegetated walls, and activity of eastern small-footed bats (Myotis leibii) was higher as the summer progressed. Bats that roost on rock walls use cracks and crevices, which are also an important feature for climbers. Opportunistic conversations with climbers revealed that bats are observed on the cliffs. Colorado State University has a Climbers for Bat Conservation group (CSU 2023) that could be a resource for engaging climbers in a citizen science campaign.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 13, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI NPS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 13, 2025
Publisher National Park Service
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/nps-datastore-2301646
Data First Published 2024-07-10T00:00:00Z
Data Last Modified 2024-07-10T00:00:00Z
Category Data Package
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:24
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/nps-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 2ac3514e-d48a-4dfc-b88f-1c349078a0a4
Harvest Source Id d917c1a9-26b7-43ea-b8c5-c77ec750a850
Harvest Source Title DOI NPS DCAT-US
Homepage URL https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2301646
Program Code 010:119, 010:118
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash c1a87fac90b232b8fd2999ca8119e194294c710fe7527070d8f93b6313d94fc5
Source Schema Version 1.1

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