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If all goes as planned, the clean cave would resemble the first-year environment of a new roosting area in a natural cave. The fake cave could hold perhaps 250,000 bats. Holliday said he would be delighted if 1,000 show up this winter. He said the winter of 2013-2014 will provide the first solid test of the concept. The cave is designed to be easily replicated with precast culvert sections that slide together and are then sealed. The earth uphill from the cave is graded so rainwater will flow through a pipe into a basin in the cave floor, overflowing it to help keep humidity at around 85 percent. The basin also gives the bats a water source. The project was built on land the conservancy bought and then deeded to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. It is near the Tennessee-Kentucky border, just south of the Fort Campbell U.S. Army post. ___ Online: White-Nose Syndrome: The Nature Conservancy: http://www.nature.org/
http://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/
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