Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge - Wildlife

Wildlife

Fern Cave serves as a home to the largest colony of federally endangered gray bats in the United States. NWR officials estimate that over 1.5 million gray bats use the cave annually.

Approximately 200 species of animals use the refuge. Other than the endangered bats, the cave contains cave fish (Typhlichthys subterraneus), cave crayfish, banded sculpins, cave salamanders (Eurycea lucifuga), and northern slimy salamanders (Plethodon glutinosus). Other animals on the refuge include (Cottus carolinae), bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), yellow bullhead catfish (Ictalurus natalis), . Outside of the cave, white-tailed deer, turkeys, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, and rabbits.

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