Oregon Caves National Monument - Animals

Oregon Caves National Monument is home to over 160 cave species, including eight of the fifteen bat species found in Oregon. The most commonly found species are the big-eared Townsend bats, Yuma bats, and long-eared myotis bats. The bats visit the cave more often in the late fall and winter for their mating season. With the increase in bat visitation during the winter, and to reduce the impacts upon hibernating bats, cave tours are not offered from December to mid-March.

"Cold-blooded" animals tend to thrive better in caves than "warm-blooded" animals because they only require about one-quarter as much food. There are at least 30 different microbes that live in the cave. Some produce black manganese stains, some appear as lichen-like cave slime, others create the slippery steps, and some even look like a white clay that often is full of antibiotics. Springtails and some beetles are soil animals that were preadapted or exadapted to live in caves. The cave is also home to tissue moths, harvestmen (daddy longlegs), woodrats, snails, slugs and spiders. There are more than 8 endemics, species known only in Oregon Caves and nowhere else in the world. This is the most for any cave in the United States. The cave's age, moderate size and proximity to organic soils results in a relatively high biodiversity.

There is plenty of visible wildlife outside the cave on the Monument. Some of the commonly seen animals are black-tailed deer, stellar's jay, raven, Douglas' squirrel, and the Townsend's chipmunk. Less frequently seen residents include black bear, mountain lion, flying squirrel, Pacific giant salamander, mountain beaver, trout, and the northern spotted owl. In a survey conducted in 2002 by the Klamath Bird Observatory, over 50 species of birds were detected at Oregon Caves National Monument.