Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for Tricolored Bat

Issuing agencies

Abstract

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to list the tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus), a bat species from Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Mexico, a small part of southeastern Canada, and all or portions of the following 39 States and the District of Columbia: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming, as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). This determination also serves as our 12-month finding on a petition to list the tricolored bat. After a review of the best available scientific and commercial information, we find that listing the species is warranted. Accordingly, we propose to list the tricolored bat as an endangered species under the Act. If we finalize this rule as proposed, it will add this species to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and extend the Act's protections to the species. We find that designating critical habitat for this species is not prudent. We also are notifying the public that we have scheduled an informational meeting followed by a public hearing on the proposed rule.