City life makes females fussy: sex differences in habitat use of temperate bats in urban areas

Lintott, Paul R.; Fuentes‐Montemayor, Elisa; Minderman, Jeroen; Mayhew, Rebekah J.; Olley, Lena; Park, Kirsty

doi:10.1098/rsos.140200

Cited by 35 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…) or less fragmented habitat (Lintott et al. ) during this period. If and where roads represent, or are associated with, poor quality habitat (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Roads and bats: a meta‐analysis and review of the evidence on vehicle collisions and barrier effects

Fensome

Mathews

2016

Mammal Review

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Roads are a potential threat to bat conservation. In addition to the direct risk of collision of bats with vehicles, roads could pose a threat to bat populations as a result of habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, and could act as barriers to movements of bats between habitats.We performed a systematic review of the literature and conducted meta‐analyses to assess the threat posed by roads to bats as a result of 1) collisions between bats and vehicles and 2) roads acting as barriers to movements of bats.Based on collated records of 1207 bat road casualties in Europe, we found that low‐flying species are more prone to collisions than high‐flying species, and that juveniles are more vulnerable to collisions than adults. In addition, meta‐analysis identified a significant bias towards male casualties. Casualties included rare species such as Barbastella barbastellus and geographically restricted species such as Rhinolophus species.The bias towards male casualties could be indicative of greater natal philopatry or lower dispersal among females, or of sexual segregation in habitats of varying quality, i.e. females may occupy better quality habitats than males, and road density may be lower in better quality habitats.Whether or not roads act as barriers to the movement of bats depends on a complex interplay of habitat and species‐specific behaviour. For example, the presence of favourable habitat for bats – notably woodland – was found in this review to be linked with significantly reduced barrier effects but a heightened risk of collision.Our data suggest that roads do pose a threat to bats. Future research should assess the contribution of traffic noise and street lighting to the barrier effect of roads. Where new road schemes are monitored by ecological practitioners, it is vital that consistent protocols are employed to ensure that bat activity can be compared before and after the road is built. Evidence from such research should be used to minimize the risks for bats of any roads built in the future, and to design safe crossing points for bats.

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“…) or less fragmented habitat (Lintott et al. ) during this period. If and where roads represent, or are associated with, poor quality habitat (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Roads and bats: a meta‐analysis and review of the evidence on vehicle collisions and barrier effects

Fensome

Mathews

2016

Mammal Review

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“…The results of this study align with previous findings from temperate areas, in which male and female bats differed in their responses to local and landscape‐scale metrics of habitat quality, composition, and configuration in an urban setting (Lintott et al . ). They also agree with several telemetry studies providing evidence for gender‐specific differences in habitat use in Neotropical bats— e.g ., preference of foraging areas closer to day roosts in males than females (Meyer et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Still, despite timing their life cycle to match periods of peak food availability, female bats may be constrained by the elevated energetic requirements associated with pregnancy and lactation, which might force them to alter their foraging time budgets and limit their habitat use to the most resource‐rich areas (Lintott et al . ). Although habitat quality might not be as critical to males and non‐breeding females (Cryan et al .…”

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confidence: 97%

“…The reproductive phenology of many tropical bats is strongly correlated with environmental conditions and resource availability (Ramos Pereira et al 2010, Durant et al 2013. Still, despite timing their life cycle to match periods of peak food availability, female bats may be constrained by the elevated energetic requirements associated with pregnancy and lactation, which might force them to alter their foraging time budgets and limit their habitat use to the most resource-rich areas (Lintott et al 2014). Although habitat quality might not be as critical to males and non-breeding females (Cryan et al 2000, Senior et al 2005, Henry & Kalko 2007, the former might be affected by higher intra-specific competition, leading to the displacement of poorly competitive same-sex juveniles from resource-rich habitats .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Does sex matter? Gender‐specific responses to forest fragmentation in Neotropical bats

et al. 2017

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Understanding the consequences of habitat modification on wildlife communities is central to the development of conservation strategies. However, albeit male and female individuals of numerous species are known to exhibit differences in habitat use, sex‐specific responses to habitat modification remain little explored. Here, we used a landscape‐scale fragmentation experiment to assess, separately for males and females, the effects of fragmentation on the abundance of Carollia perspicillata and Rhinophylla pumilio, two widespread Neotropical frugivorous bats. We predicted that sex‐specific responses would arise from higher energetic requirements from pregnancy and lactation in females. Analyses were conducted independently for each season, and we further investigated the joint responses to local and landscape‐scale metrics of habitat quality, composition, and configuration. Although males and females responded similarly to a fragmentation gradient composed by continuous forest, fragment interiors, edges, and matrix habitats, we found marked differences between sexes in habitat use for at least one of the seasons. Whereas the sex ratio varied little in continuous forest and fragment interiors, females were found to be more abundant than males in edge and matrix habitats. This difference was more prominent in the dry season, the reproductive season of both species. For both species, abundance responses to local‐ and landscape‐scale predictors differed between sexes and again, differences were more pronounced in the dry season. The results suggest considerable sex‐mediated responses to forest disruption and degradation in tropical bats and complement our understanding of the impacts of fragmentation on tropical forest vertebrate communities.

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“…However, caution should be taken in drawing the conclusion that maintaining urban woodland will support P. pygmaeus populations given that female P. pygmaeus show greater selectivity of foraging locations within this habitat (Lintott et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential responses of cryptic bat species to the urban landscape

Lintott

Barlow

Briggs

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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Urbanization is a key global driver in the modification of land use and has been linked to population declines even in widespread and relatively common species. Cities comprise a complex assortment of habitat types yet we know relatively little about the effects of their composition and spatial configuration on species distribution. Although many bat species exploit human resources, the majority of species are negatively impacted by urbanization. Here, we use data from the National Bat Monitoring Programme, a long‐running citizen science scheme, to assess how two cryptic European bat species respond to the urban landscape. A total of 124 × 1 km2 sites throughout Britain were surveyed. The landscape surrounding each site was mapped and classified into discrete biotope types (e.g., woodland). Generalized linear models were used to assess differences in the response to the urban environment between the two species, and which landscape factors were associated with the distributions of P. pipistrellus and P. pygmaeus. The relative prevalence of P. pygmaeus compared to P. pipistrellus was greater in urban landscapes with a higher density of rivers and lakes, whereas P. pipistrellus was frequently detected in landscapes comprising a high proportion of green space (e.g., parklands). Although P. pipistrellus is thought to be well adapted to the urban landscape, we found a strong negative response to urbanization at a relatively local scale (1 km), whilst P. pygmaeus was detected more regularly in wooded urban landscapes containing freshwater. These results show differential habitat use at a landscape scale of two morphologically similar species, indicating that cryptic species may respond differently to anthropogenic disturbance. Even species considered relatively common and well adapted to the urban landscape may respond negatively to the built environment highlighting the future challenges involved in maintaining biodiversity within an increasingly urbanized world.

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City life makes females fussy: sex differences in habitat use of temperate bats in urban areas

Cited by 35 publications

References 43 publications

Roads and bats: a meta‐analysis and review of the evidence on vehicle collisions and barrier effects

Roads and bats: a meta‐analysis and review of the evidence on vehicle collisions and barrier effects

Does sex matter? Gender‐specific responses to forest fragmentation in Neotropical bats

Differential responses of cryptic bat species to the urban landscape

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