ASSESSING THE STABILITY AND LONG-TERM VIABILITY OF ABANDONED MINES FOR USE BY BATS

TL;DRAbstract

There are 12 species of bats that occur in Illinois; 5 of these species can be found hibernating in abandoned mines and caves in southern Illinois. Due to the destruction of their natural hibernacula, caves, many species of bats have found abandoned mines to be suitable replacement habitat. A complex of abandoned underground microcrystalline silica mines in southern Illinois owned by Unimin Specialty Minerals Corporation now provides hibernacula for 5 species of cavernicolous bats: the federally endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), little brown bat (M. lucifugus), eastern pipistrelle (Perimyotis subflavus), big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), and the northern long-eared bat (M. septentrionalis). Within the last 10 years the number of bats using these mines has increased dramatically, especially the Indiana bat which has increased from just over 9,000 to 43,000 hibernating in Magazine Mine. One concern of having so many endangered bats hibernating in one mine is stability. Mines were

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