SUN HATS FOR BAT BOXES: MITIGATING THE RISK OF OVERHEATING AT NORTHERN LATITUDES ...
(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) At northern latitudes, bats often use roosting structures provided by people. Conventional thinking suggests that bat boxes should be entirely black to absorb heat and assist bats with thermoregulation. However, with long periods of summer daylight...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
Zenodo
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13448358 https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13448358 |
| Summary: | (Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) At northern latitudes, bats often use roosting structures provided by people. Conventional thinking suggests that bat boxes should be entirely black to absorb heat and assist bats with thermoregulation. However, with long periods of summer daylight in subarctic Canada, we suspected that risk of overheating might occur in black boxes. We investigated whether roost temperatures exceeded 428C, the upper limit of the thermoneutral zone in Little Brown Myotis (Myotis lucifugus), and whether replacing the black roof with a white one, akin to a sun hat, would alleviate the risk of overheating without compromising roost temperatures especially at night. We also investigated whether bats used the boxes. The internal temperature of black boxes exceeded 428C on some days in 2 summers. Substituting the black roof with a white one consistently reduced the maximum daily roost temperature to below 428C, but this was also accompanied by a slightly lower minimum roost ... |
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