Environmental factors affecting the differential use of foraging habitat by three sympatric species of Pipistrellus ...

• Main Authors: Kusch, Jürgen, Schmitz, Anna
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2013
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Pipistrellus pipistrellus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13519785; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13519785

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) We identified several ecological parameters that may promote the foraging habitat differentiation by sympatric bat species. The exploitation of discrete habitats was shown to facilitate the coexistence of morphologically similar species. Bats represent a model species group, where many morphologically similar species exploit similar resources, e.g. insects as prey organisms. We studied three closely related species of bats in a Central European region of sympatric occurrence – the common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus), Nathusius' pipistrelle (P. nathusii), and the soprano pipistrelle (P. pygmaeus). We employed point locality data and niche-based species distribution modelling (maximum entropy modelling, 'MaxEnt') to model the habitat use by these species. A restricted distribution of P. pygmaeus and P. nathusii compared to P. pipistrellus was observed that may indicate a stronger habitat specialization of these two species compared to P. ...