Recent infestation of forest stands by spruce beetles does not predict habitat use by little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in southwestern Yukon, Canada

Randall, Lea A.; Barclay, Robert M. R.; Reid, Mary L.; Jung, Thomas S.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2011.02.021

Cited by 24 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…During the early period (21 May–20 July), female little brown bats give birth and rear pups, but during the late period (21 July–12 September) bat activity increases as juvenile bats become volant (Slough and Jung 2008). Temperature and survey period were included in all candidate models, as they previously explained a significant amount of variation in bat activity (Randall et al 2011, Thomas et al 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging habitat drives the distribution of an endangered bat in an urbanizing boreal landscape

et al. 2021

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The boreal forest is the largest intact forest in the world, and a refuge for species experiencing range retractions as a consequence of climate and landscape change. Yet, large tracts of the boreal forest are threatened by the cumulative impacts of climate change, natural resource extraction, agriculture, and urbanization, perhaps warranting a shift in focus from biodiversity conservation in intact wilderness to that in anthropologically modified landscapes. We investigated landscape features that influence the distribution of the endangered little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) in an urbanizing boreal landscape at two spatial scales. We hypothesized that little brown bat activity would be influenced by proximity to available building roosts, because roosts are a potential limiting factor for boreal bats. Secondarily, we predicted that bats would use potential foraging habitat, such as waterbodies, and would avoid young, cluttered forests at the landscape scale. We conducted acoustic surveys of bat activity at 210 sites distributed across the study area in Yukon, Canada, within 1-km grid cells. We tested a priori hypotheses with a set of candidate regression models, accounting for spatial autocorrelation. Our hypothesis about the relative importance of anthropogenic roosts was not supported. Little brown bats were equally active in urban areas (high building density) and rural areas (low building density), perhaps because roosts were adequately available throughout the region. Instead, habitat use was driven by the distribution of potential foraging habitat, particularly waterbodies, which are important sources of aerial insect prey. Little brown bats also avoided young (≤100-yr-old) forest at the landscape scale (including areas regenerating after fire), which may have been poor foraging or roosting habitat, and used areas with a smaller agricultural and industrial footprint. Our results suggest that waterbodies and mature forest are important little brown bat habitats that should be protected from urban encroachment. Proactive conservation of important habitat for species at risk is still possible throughout much of the boreal forest, where human densities are comparatively low and the urban footprint is currently small.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging habitat drives the distribution of an endangered bat in an urbanizing boreal landscape

et al. 2021

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“…, Patriquin and Barclay , Randall et al. ), we used the number of bat passes per night as our measure of bat activity. A bat pass was defined as ≥2 echolocation calls, followed by a pause of ≥2 s or separated by a feeding buzz, which is the terminal phase of a foraging attempt.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life in a northern town: rural villages in the boreal forest are islands of habitat for an endangered bat

Thomas

Jung

2019

Ecosphere

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Citation: Thomas, J. P., and T. S. Jung. 2019. Life in a northern town: rural villages in the boreal forest are islands of habitat for an endangered bat.Abstract. Urban development is detrimental to many wildlife species; however, endangered little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) may be attracted to human settlements, making them a synurbic species. Buildings likely provide high-quality roosting habitat, which may be a limiting factor in the boreal forest where trees are typically small and potentially unsuitable for hosting large maternity colonies. In the boreal forest, there are relatively few urban developments in a matrix of wilderness and apparently suboptimal natural roosting habitat; thus, we hypothesized that isolated rural villages were islands of summer habitat for little brown bats that may be important for their conservation and recovery. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the relationship between little brown bat activity, foraging rates, and proximity to rural villages. We expected bat activity and foraging rates to increase with proximity to villages, as bats should optimally forage near their roosts to minimize flight costs. We used ultrasonic detectors to passively monitor bat activity near three rural villages in Yukon, Canada, and characterized bat habitat with forest measurements and remotely sensed data. Bat activity increased with proximity to village centers, but foraging activity did not, suggesting that human settlements in the boreal forest were important as roosting rather than foraging habitat. Bat activity was higher near water bodies and areas with relatively high densities of linear features (e.g., roads and transmission lines), perhaps because prey were most abundant near water features and along forest edges. The island phenomenon we observed (i.e., higher bat activity near villages) has also been documented in larger human settlements at lower latitudes, where urban areas provided better roosting habitat than surrounding agricultural matrices. Given that little brown bats were concentrated near rural villages, small human settlements should be a focus of conservation efforts in the boreal forest-particularly the identification and protection of buildings used as maternity colonies. Our study advances knowledge of little brown bat habitat requirements in the boreal forest and identifies habitats that may be important for their recovery.

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“…Further research aimed at improving our knowledge of the summer habitat requirements of little brown bats should focus on better understanding habitat composition, as well as the number and characteristics of maternity roost sites within their foraging areas. However, it is also important to consider that climate change may significantly alter habitats available to little brown bats in the boreal forest (Randall et al 2011;Jung et al 2014;Jung 2020). As such, there will likely be a need to ensure that a diversity of foraging areas and roost sites are available for bats in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cavity-roosting little brown bats exhibit a fission-fusion pattern of roosting behavior, involving roost switching by adult females and pups among maternity groups occupying roost networks (Olson and Barclay 2013). Moreover, long-term site fidelity may become more or less important for little brown bats under a changing climate that may result in reductions of suitable trees as roost sites (e.g., Randall et al 2011;Jung 2020). Climate change may affect foraging success (i.e., insect abundance and activity) and roosting site characteristics (i.e., thermal conditions), through changes in temperature or precipitation that affect the selection of optimal sites (Sherwin et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Little Brown Bats Utilize Multiple Maternity Roosts Within Foraging Areas: Implications for Identifying Summer Habitat

Slough

Jung

2020

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management

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Identifying habitat features that may influence the survival and fitness of threatened species is often constrained by a lack of information about the appropriate scale for habitat conservation efforts. Canada's Species at Risk Act lists little brown bats Myotis lucifugus as Endangered and there is a need to determine the scale for delineating important summer habitat features that should be protected. We used a 19-y dataset of banded little brown bats in a 15,000-km2 area of southern Yukon, Canada, to examine fidelity to roost sites and potential foraging areas. We captured and banded 4,349 bats during 208 live-trapping sessions at maternity roosts. Adult females used multiple roosts during the maternity period, separated by up to 6.1 km, within foraging areas, to which individuals exhibited fidelity. Our fidelity rates (≤ 60.5%) are the lowest, and roost-switching rates (≤ 35.5%) the greatest, reported for little brown bats. A small percentage (14.0–20.7%) of females banded as juveniles returned to their natal roosts or foraging areas as adults. We infrequently observed long-distance (25–200 km) switching to novel foraging areas (< 1% of banded bats). We established bat houses to mitigate the loss of a cabin roost; 46.3% of the bats banded at the cabin occupied these houses. The longest documented period of roost fidelity was 18 y, by a female banded as an adult. Roost fidelity by returning adult females declined annually by 3.8–5.3% due to natural mortality, roost switching, or dispersal. Having a choice of multiple maternity roosts within a foraging area may permit little brown bats to select optimal microclimatic conditions throughout the maternity season. Given that fidelity to foraging areas may be higher than to specific roost sites for little brown bats, identification of summer habitat based on foraging areas may be a more effective conservation strategy than relying solely on roost sites.

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Recent infestation of forest stands by spruce beetles does not predict habitat use by little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in southwestern Yukon, Canada

Cited by 24 publications

References 48 publications

Foraging habitat drives the distribution of an endangered bat in an urbanizing boreal landscape

Foraging habitat drives the distribution of an endangered bat in an urbanizing boreal landscape

Life in a northern town: rural villages in the boreal forest are islands of habitat for an endangered bat

Little Brown Bats Utilize Multiple Maternity Roosts Within Foraging Areas: Implications for Identifying Summer Habitat

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