Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge

Wintering gray mouse-eared colony in Fern Cave

The remote Cave National Wildlife Refuge is a 82-hectare nature reserve in the northeast of the US state of Alabama , in 1981 to protect endangered species of bat Gray Mouse-eared and Indiana Mouse ear was established. The cave remote cave contains the largest wintering colony of gray mouse ears in the United States , more than a million bats hibernate here every year. Cave fish , cave crabs and cave salamanders have been discovered in the huge cave system below the surface . Kilometers of corridors with stalactitic and stalagmite- filled cavities extend on several levels . There are four cave entrances hidden in the wooded area above. The endangered American Hart's Tongue Fern , from which the cave takes its name, also grows there.

Web links

Commons : Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge US Fish & Wildlife Service
• Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey

Individual evidence

1. ^ Thomas V. Ress: National Wildlife Refuges . In: Encyclopedia of Alabama . November 21, 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2019.

Coordinates: 34 ° 40 ′ 38 "  N , 86 ° 18 ′ 32"  W.