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Sauta Cave and Fern Cave safeguard critical habitat of the endangered gray and Indiana bats.
Fern Cave, located two miles north of Paint Rock, borders Paint Rock River on the south. More than 1 million gray bats hibernate in Fern Cave, as do several hundred endangered Indiana bats. Fern Cave Refuge consists of 199 acres of upland hardwoods and limestone outcroppings.
Fern Cave also has the threatened American hart's tongue fern at one of its five hidden entrances.
Sauta Cave, with a double entrance, sits just above the Sauty Creek embayment of Guntersville Reservoir, seven miles west of Scottsboro.
This 264-acre refuge protects upland hardwoods and limestone rock out crops and it serves as a minor hibernation area for Indiana bats and historically as a major birthing cave for gray bats.
Visitors may hike and observe and photograph the unique wildlife, however cave entry is prohibited.
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