ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.— Following a court-ordered agreement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today designated more than 1.1 million acres of ­­critical habitat for the endangered Florida bonneted bat ...

The Ozark big-eared bat once lived in caves in Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. However, they have apparently abandoned their Missouri habitat due to human encroachment and cave disturbance.

But the agency failed to designate critical habitat for the imperiled bats. Tricolored bats are among the smallest bats in eastern North America — and among the most imperiled. In the past two decades ...