Airport noise disturbs foraging behavior of Japanese pipistrelle bats

Abstract

The expansion of anthropogenic noise poses an emerging threat to the survival and reproductive success of various organisms. Previous investigations have focused on the detrimental effects of anthropogenic noise on the foraging behavior in some terrestrial and aquatic animals. Nevertheless, the role of airport noise in impairing foraging activities of most wild animals has been neglected. Here, we aimed to assess whether foraging behavior in free‐living Japanese pipistrelle bats ( Pipistrellus abramus ) can be disturbed by airport noise. We used audio recording to monitor foraging activities of bats at 11 sites around the runway of a municipal airport. We quantified noise level and spectra, aircraft activity, habitat type, nightly temperature, wind speed, and moon phase for each site. The analysis revealed that noise level and aircraft activity were significant negative predictors for the number of bat passes and feeding buzzes around the runway, even after controlling for the effects of other environmental factors. There was no marked spectral overlap between bat echolocation pulses and airport noise in the presence and absence of low‐flying aircraft. The spectro‐temporal parameters of echolocation vocalizations emitted by bats were dependent on noise level, aircraft activity, and habitat type. These results provide correlative evidence that airport noise can reduce foraging activities of wild pipistrelle bats. Our findings add to the current knowledge of adverse impacts of airport noise on foraging bats in artificial ecosystems and provide a basis for further research on the mechanisms behind noise pollution near airports.

ACE2 fromPipistrellus abramusbats is a receptor for HKU5 coronaviruses

“…Merbecoviruses are yet another type of beta-coronavirus found in wildlife with potential human cell compatibility and a possibility to cause severe disease in humans. Japanese house bats ( Pipistrellus abramus ) are the natural host for HKU5 coronaviruses and are synanthropic, roosting in human dwellings and structures, and therefore pose repeat opportunities for human exposure 46,58 . Luckily, clade 2 merbecovirus RBDs exhibit low human ACE2 compatibility, although efforts should still be made to reduce contact with these animals (Fig.…”

Spectrally non-overlapping background noise disturbs echolocation via acoustic masking in the CF-FM bat, Hipposideros pratti

“…Therefore, we conclude that low SNR is not the only trigger for the Lombard effect, or the bats are still trying to maintain a perceptual SNR does not depend only on the carrier frequencies of the noise. Multiple field studies have shown that echolocating behavior is disturbed by anthropogenic noise, which is usually spectrally non-overlapping ( Siemers and Schaub, 2011 ; Bunkley et al, 2015 ; Bunkley and Barber, 2015 ; Luo et al, 2015 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). However, whether echolocating bats increase the intensity of their calls in response to spectrally non-overlapping noise under field conditions still needs to be verified.…”

“…Our present study shows that 60-dB SPL, 1- to 20-kHz white noise can potentially disturb the echolocation behavior of H. pratti via acoustic masking. The noise used in this study was in the frequency range of the bat’s communication calls and some anthropogenic noises, such as airport noise ( Wang et al, 2022 ) and traffic noise ( Geipel et al, 2019 ). Although the bats are used to and resilient to their communication calls, the constant anthropogenic noise could have stronger effects on the biosonar system of the bats.…”