The gray bat (Myotis grisescens) once flourished in caves all over the southeastern United States, but due to human disturbance, gray bat populations declined severely during the early and mid portion of the 20th century. At one cave alone, the Georgetown Cave in northwestern Alabama, populations declined from 150,000 gray bats to 10,000 by 1969. In 1976, M. grisescens was placed on the U.S.