Data for: Summer declines of cave-dwelling Tricolored Bats

Several bat species experienced rapid population declines in the northern United States and Canada in response to the white-nose syndrome (WNS) epizootic. The pathogen has since spread across the United States, including the southeast, where relatively warm temperatures may change host–pathogen interactions. In the cave-rich Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia (TAG) region, we examined the impacts of WNS and forest cover on the Tricolored Bat (Perimyotis subflavus) metapopulation using a long-term dataset of 832  cave surveys conducted in summer and winter from 2004–2022. Most bat colonies were small (<30 individuals), and bats were more likely to be present and abundant in caves surrounded by high percent forest cover, reiterating the importance of forest management for bat conservation. When comparing the years before and after the pathogen arrived in 2010–2012, bat presence and abundance during winter hibernation did not change. This stability contrasts significant declines in other studies..., A total of 466 caves and 832 visual surveys were conducted throughout Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. These caves varied across five level III ecoregions, latitude, and elevation. Caves were not selected based on previous WNS data, but on having little to no previous biological data or were associated with other focal taxa. Comprehensive visual surveys from the cave entrance to the farthest explorable area by the research team were conducted year-round. When encountered, all bats were identified visually by an individual on the team with bat identification experience. During the surveys, the survey length was recorded as a linear measurement from the cave entrance to the survey stopping point. Forest cover around the cave was collected using satellite imagery from the USGS Global Forest Cover Change image collection. The proportion of forest cover was defined as the percentage of pixels in 30x30 m units designated as woody vegetation >5 m in height within a circular buffer from the ..., , # Summer declines of cave-dwelling Tricolored Bats

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c2fqz61j1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c2fqz61j1)

This metadata file describes one dataset and one R script file to repeat the analyses for the paper, “Tri-colored Bats persist during winter in caves in the southeastern United States, but summer cave use has declined in response to white nose syndrome”. We conducted all analyses using R version 4.0.0 and RStudio Version 1.3.1073.

\**Authors: **Tessa Costley1, Skylar R. Hopkins2*, Sophie Meng2, Zachary Gajewski2, and Matthew L. Niemiller1

**Affiliations**

1 Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, 301 Sparkman Drive NW, Huntsville, AL 35899

2 Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695

*Corresponding author: Matthew L. Niemiller; e-mail: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

**R Script File: TriColoredBat_Analysis.R**

This R script loads one data file: TriColoredBat_Count...