BATS!

A recent survey of bats conducted and published by researchers from University of Maryland indicate that the loblolly pine-dominated forests at Assateague Island National Seashore provide suitable roosting and foraging habitat mostly for eastern red bats, which concentrate their activity in vegetated areas and at freshwater pools.

The freshwater pools are an important part of the ecosystem at Assateague Island National Seashore that supply bats and other organisms with freshwater on an island surrounded by saltwater.

Although eastern red bats are the predominant bat species at the national park, hoary bats, silver-haired bats and eastern pipistrelles occur there in limited numbers during summer or during spring and autumn migration.

Evidence of bats using Assateague Island National Seashore as a migratory pathway or stopover site may have implications for future offshore wind-energy developments and warrants further investigation.