Appraisal, and Suggestions for New Approaches

• Main Authors: Thomas J. O’shea, Laura E. Ellison, Thomas R. Stanley
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Historical Overview; Critical; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.552.3192; http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/bats/pubs/oshea_c15.pdf

There are more than 1,100 species of bats, representing nearly 20 % of all species of mammals (Simmons, in press). Bats occur on every continent except Antarctica, and although they occur in greatest diversity in the tropics, their distribution extends at least to tree line at high lati-tudes. Given this wide distribution and high species richness, it is not sur-prising that bats display a large number of feeding specializations and play key functional roles in ecosystems. Insectivorous bats are best known to temperate zone biologists, but at lower latitudes other species are frugivo-rous, nectarivorous, piscivorous, carnivorous, or even sanguivorous (blood-feeders). Bats play important ecological roles as pollinators and dispersers of fruit seeds in warm climates and as major consumers of insects in most terrestrial ecosystems. These attributes are of significant economic and ecological benefit, but some bats can also be detrimental to human affairs. In the neotropics vampire bats negatively affect livestock health, and bats may play an as yet poorly understood role in disease transmission cycles. In light of their importance, bats are also of global conservation concern. Many species of bats are endangered or are considered “sensitive ” species in the United States, and several nations provide legal protection to bats. Negative impacts on bat populations have stemmed from a variety of fac-tors. These include habitat loss, declines in roost availability, disturbance to