Author: Ellen M. WhittlePublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bats
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Delineating habitat preferences, especially those of imperiled species, is critical to ensure that species have access to resources needed to persist. In addition to overall preferences, establishing the phenology of sensitive periods such as reproduction can be challenging for small, cryptic species such as bats. We conducted an empirical study in northeast Wyoming, USA, to characterize the habitat selection of northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis). Objectives in Chapter 1 were to (1) characterize the maternity roost-site preferences of endangered northern long-eared bats in a peripheral population occurring within a forest managed for timber harvest, and (2) determine whether roost-site preferences and switching were modulated by weather conditions. Chapter 2 objectives were (1) to assess whether maternity roost trees of northern long-eared bats are used for multiple years in northeast Wyoming; (2) to determine whether intra-seasonal occupation of maternity roosts in northeast Wyoming matches the timing of seasonal protections for northern long-eared bats; and (3) to assess the efficacy of motion-triggered game cameras for determining occupancy of maternity roosts. In our first chapter, we found that bats were more likely to select quaking aspens, snags, and trees relatively large in diameter; however, these preferences were modulated by daily weather conditions and reproductive state. Bats roosted more often in pine at warm temperatures and while lactating, and in snags when solar radiation was high and precipitation low. Bats preferred forest patches with higher canopy cover and a larger proportion of snags. In our second chapter, we documented colony occupation at maternity roosts across multiple years and outside of the protected season of June—July. We also recorded rarely documented behaviors, including pup carrying, with motion-triggered game cameras. Our findings provide guidance on habitat types that would be beneficial to conserve for northern long-eared bat populations, and more broadly, that context-dependence is an important consideration for habitat-selection studies. Peripheral populations may be critical for future recovery of declining species; however, seasonal protections against habitat disturbance may be mismatched with the phenology of populations at range edges.
