Date(s): November 16, 2006

Location: Adair County, Oklahoma

Participants: Richard Stark, Oklahoma Ecological Services Field Office; Steve Hensley, Ozark Plateau National Wildlife Refuge, Dr. G. O. Graening, Natural Investigations

Executive summary:

Richard Stark of the Oklahoma ES Field Office and Steve Hensley, manager of the Ozark Plateau National Wildlife Refuge, assisted Dr. G. O. Graening on bio-inventories of several limestone caves in Adair County, Oklahoma.  The bio-inventories are part of the Ozark Subterranean Biodiversity Project.  A primary goal of this project is to inventory the fauna of the subterranean habitats that occur in the Ozark Highlands Ecoregion of northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas.  The fauna of many caves in the Ozarks of Oklahoma and Arkansas has not been adequately inventoried, yet many of the animals are highly endemic and some are very rare.  Species encountered during this recent survey effort include the cave salamander, cave cricket, eastern pipistrelle bats, and a species of cave isopod and cave amphipod.

FWS programs involved: Ecological Services and Refuges