Relating bat species presence to habitat features in natural forests of Slovakia (Central Europe)

Kaňuch, Peter; Danko, Stanislav; Ceľuch, Martin; Krištín, Anton; Pjenčák, P.; Matis, Š.; Smidt, J. T. De

doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2006.12.001

Cited by 54 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Water bodies were mostly preferred, which is consistent with several studies that used mostly acoustical monitoring 22 23 24 , yet this finding contrasts with stable isotope data from N. noctula killed during the autumn migration period by wind turbines 25 . Furthermore, N. noctula preferred to fly above grassland, which is also in line with several other studies 26 (for pasture 24 , for forest-farmland ecotone). Another habitat category that was extensively used by the bats was urban areas.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Habitat use of bats in relation to wind turbines revealed by GPS tracking

Roeleke

Blohm²,

Kramer‐Schadt

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Worldwide, many countries aim at countering global climate change by promoting renewable energy. Yet, recent studies highlight that so-called green energy, such as wind energy, may come at environmental costs, for example when wind turbines kill birds and bats. Using miniaturized GPS loggers, we studied how an open-space foraging bat with high collision risk with wind turbines, the common noctule Nyctalus noctula (Schreber, 1774), interacts with wind turbines. We compared actual flight trajectories to correlated random walks to identify habitat variables explaining the movements of bats. Both sexes preferred wetlands but used conventionally managed cropland less than expected based on availability. During midsummer, females traversed the land on relatively long flight paths and repeatedly came close to wind turbines. Their flight heights above ground suggested a high risk of colliding with wind turbines. In contrast, males recorded in early summer commuted straight between roosts and foraging areas and overall flew lower than the operating range of most turbine blades, suggesting a lower collision risk. Flight heights of bats suggest that during summer the risk of collision with wind turbines was high for most studied bats at the majority of currently installed wind turbines. For siting of wind parks, preferred bat habitats and commuting routes should be identified and avoided.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Habitat use of bats in relation to wind turbines revealed by GPS tracking

Roeleke

Blohm²,

Kramer‐Schadt

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Food items of common noctules can be quite diverse, ranging from small Diptera to large Lepidoptera or Coleoptera (Eichstädt , Gloor et al , Jones , Vaughan , Rydell and Petersons ). Consequently, common noctules can be categorised as food and habitat generalists that hunt opportunistically above water bodies (Roeleke et al , Voigt et al ), open fields (Mackie and Racey , Roeleke et al ), forest edges (Rachwald , Kaňuch et al , Heim et al ) or even urban areas (Kronwitter , Gaisler et al ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat

Roeleke

Blohm²,

Hoffmeister³

et al. 2020

Oikos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In anthropogenic landscapes, aerial insectivores are often confronted with variable habitat complexity, which may influence the distribution of prey. Yet, high mobility may allow aerial insectivores to adjust their foraging strategy to different prey distributions. We investigated whether aerial‐hunting common noctules Nyctalus noctula adjust their foraging strategy to landscapes with different habitat complexity and assumingly different prey distribution. We hypothesized that the movement behaviour of hunting common noctules and changes of movement behaviour in reaction towards conspecifics would depend on whether they hunt in a structurally poor cropland dominated landscape or a structurally rich forest dominated landscape. We tracked flight paths of common noctules in northeastern Germany using GPS loggers equipped with an ultrasonic microphone that recorded foraging events and presence of conspecifics. Above cropland, common noctules hunted mainly during bouts of highly tortuous and area restricted movements (ARM). Bats switched from straight flight to ARM after encountering conspecifics. In the forested landscape, common noctules hunted both during ARM and during straight flights. The onset of ARM did not correlate with the presence of conspecifics. Common noctules showed a lower feeding rate and encountered more conspecifics above the forested than above the cropland dominated landscape. We conjecture that prey distribution above cropland was patchy and unpredictable, thus making eavesdropping on hunting conspecifics crucial for bats during search for prey patches. In contrast, small scale structural diversity of the forested landscape possibly led to a more homogeneous prey distribution at the landscape scale, thus enabling bats to find sufficient food independent of conspecific presence. This suggests that predators depending on ephemeral prey can increase their foraging success in structurally poor landscapes by using social information provided by conspecifics. Hence, a minimum population density might be obligatory to enable successful foraging in simplified landscapes.

show abstract

“…The first, apparently more obvious, is flooding (i.e., increase in water table and creation of beaver ponds, covering former terrestrial habitats). All four species that revealed significant differences between sections of the transect at site 1 (P. pipistrellus, P. pygmaeus, P. nathusii, N. noctula) are known to prefer water bodies or riparian zones (Rachwald 1992;Rydell et al 1994;Vaughan et al 1997a;Mickevičiené and Mickevičius 2001;Russ and Montgomery 2002;Downs and Racey 2006;Kaňuch et al 2007). As beavers extend riparian habitats, they improve the habitat quality for bats and provide them with large areas where prey is much more abundant than over the shallow and narrow streams.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reintroduction of beavers Castor fiber may improve habitat quality for vespertilionid bats foraging in small river valleys

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Beavers strongly modify their environment by not only building dams and creating ponds, which slow the water flow, but also by selective cutting and removing of trees, which change the spatial structure of the forest. We aimed to test the hypothesis that beaver activity promotes new foraging sites for insectivorous bats. The beaver's influence can be especially significant on aerial hawkers that prefer moderate structural clutter, like the Pipistrellus species (by creating new canopy gaps), and on water-surface foragers, like Myotis daubentonii (by creating ponds with smooth water surface). The study was conducted on small streams in forest areas of northern Poland, which were colonized by the European beaver (Castor fiber). Bat activity was recorded with a Pettersson D-980 ultrasound detector on line transects. The number of bat passes was significantly higher in the stream sections modified by beavers (flooded and subjected to intensive tree cutting) than in the unmodified sections (for Pipistrellus nathusii, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Pipistrellus pygmaeus, Nyctalus noctula, and all species lumped together). Contrary to our expectations, the activity of the Myotis species was significantly lower on the transect with the largest beaver ponds, possibly due to the blanket of duckweed (Lemnaceae), which is known to produce clutter echoes, thereby reducing prey detection by echolocating M. daubentonii.

show abstract

Relating bat species presence to habitat features in natural forests of Slovakia (Central Europe)

Cited by 54 publications

References 30 publications

Habitat use of bats in relation to wind turbines revealed by GPS tracking

Habitat use of bats in relation to wind turbines revealed by GPS tracking

Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat

Reintroduction of beavers Castor fiber may improve habitat quality for vespertilionid bats foraging in small river valleys

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About