As black bear numbers increase in Missouri, we might start seeing evidence of new cave use by bears. Each species of bat has a distinctive skull, mandibles and teeth. We can identify and carbon-date these microfossils. Such studies can help us understand the severity of past glaciations, the habitat requirements of endangered gray bats, and Indiana bats, and the range of climate changes Missouri could expect in the future. The majority of the area of most larger caves receives no light whatsoever.
Some organisms seem more likely to live in one region or another.
Probably everyone knows bats love caves. Many bats also roost in forests, barns, homes and church belfries, but some bat species are almost always associated with cave habitats, either roosting singly or in incredibly dense clusters with several hundred bats per square foot of the cluster. Some species live in caves only during the summer, some are found hibernating in caves only during the winter and some live in caves all year. Bats often roost in the same spots, and their guano accumulates below them. Guano piles of gray bats are sometimes several feet high and several yards in circumference.