The Agua Caliente Tribe has a plan to protect the southern yellow bat and other endangered species living on its land.
Written by Steven Biller
This article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2024 edition of Me Yah Whae magazine, the official magazine of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
The palm tree loving southern yellow bat feels perfectly at home in the Indian Canyons and other parts of the Coachella Valley. The small, harmless vesper bats roost in the dried fronds of native California fan palms (Washingtonia filifera) that flourish in desert oases.
They are also found among the 19 sensitive wildlife species protected under the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians’ Tribal Habitat Conservation Plan for managing its land and natural resources. The bat is also listed as a California Species of Special Concern and a target for regional conservation and management under the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.
Only few surveys exist on the southern yellow bat (Lasiurus ega) in the Coachella Valley, but the strong night flyers with yellowish fur have been identified in the Indian Canyons — Palm, Andreas, and Murray canyons — and non-Tribal lands including the Coachella Valley Preserve and Dos Palmas Preserve, as well as in residential areas with untrimmed palm trees.
The most serious threat to the bat is the loss of the dried fronds from pruning or fire. In areas where landscaping relies heavily on palm trees, trimming threatens the bats’ habitat and use of pesticides affects the availability of its dietary staples: flying insects such as beetles and true bugs. They’re nature’s pest control.
A 2006 monitoring report of the Indian Canyons, where the palm “skirts” remain intact, indicated that bats typically spend the first part of the evening flying and foraging over water and depart in the late evening, presumably to forage in the valley and open habitat. The report also noted the bats are “non-colonial, although aggregations of up to 15 have been found in the same roost site.”
The Tribe’s conservation program establishes a habitat preserve for the bat and the other species identified in the plan. It includes “avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures; assurances for adaptive management, monitoring, implementation, and funding; and conditions for and responses to changed and unforeseen circumstances.”
