LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (News release) – Through its ongoing work to conserve the best, and sometimes last, examples of the state’s natural landscape, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission (ANHC) has recently acquired and protected more than 500 acres in northern Arkansas to directly benefit the habitats for both federally endangered and threatened species of bats.
Bats are Arkansas’s most endangered mammal, and they play an essential role in the natural environment: they eat thousands of insects every night and help pollinate flowers.
“Arkansans have long enjoyed the outdoor beauty of our state and appreciated those animals that also make this place their home,” said Darrell Bowman, ANHC director. “Bats are a part of our natural landscape and play a significant role in our ecosystem, especially in the management of insects and mosquitoes. It is with an eye toward protecting our state’s bat population to the benefit of future generations that ANHC has acquired these lands.”
In Independence County, ANHC added 400 acres to the Foushee Cave Natural Area, featuring deep-forested ravines along perennial streams that provide excellent foraging habitat for the federally endangered gray and Indiana bats and federally threatened northern long-eared bat. One of the most biologically important caves in Arkansas is located in the Foushee Cave Natural Area and is used by bats and other cave species.
Read more at ArkansasMatters.com
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