Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge

Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge 

 

Sauta Cave NWR (known as Blowing Wind Cave NWR until 1999) is a 264 acre Refuge purchased in 1978 to provide protection for the federally endangered gray and Indiana bat and their critical habitat. The cave provides a summer roosting site for about 200,000 – 300,000 gray bats and a winter hibernaculum for both the gray and Indiana bats. There are two entrances into the cave on the Refuge but they are closed to the public

As is the case with many large caves, rare and unique species occur in Sauta Cave. As a result, the Alabama Natural Heritage Program ranks the cave’s biodiversity as a site of very high significance. Surprisingly, the cave is not a pristine one as it was used as a saltpeter mine during the Civil War, a nightclub during the 1920’s, and a fallout shelter during the 1960’s.

In addition to the rare fauna within the cave, the federally endangered Price’s potato bean occurs on the Refuge. All 264 acres of habitat outside of the cave is predominately hardwood forest.

Getting There . . . 
Sauta Cave NWR is located just above the Sauty Creek embayment of TVA’s Guntersville Reservoir, seven miles west of Scottsboro, Alabama, just off highway 72.

Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 

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