The Cherokee Nation is saving a colony of endangered Ozark big-eared bats recently discovered on tribal land.

A tribal forestry specialist came across the colony while doing an appraisal for a landowner who wanted to cut down some timber. Doing so would have affected the bats, so the tribe set aside several thousand dollars to compensate the landowner for not harvesting the trees.

Scientists say only about 2,000 of the bats exist, most of them in Oklahoma.

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Rare Bats Discovered in Eastern Oklahoma (AP 1/16)