Small scale activity patterns of Eptesicus nilssonii – an indication of habitat preference or interspecific processes ...

• Main Authors: Haupt, Moritz, Schmidt, Sabine
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2007
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Nyctalus noctula; Pipistrellus pipistrellus; Vespertilio murinus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13519806; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13519806

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Habitat use and interspecific processes are key factors shaping regional distribution as well as local activity patterns of mammals. To assess the importance of differential habitat use and interspecific processes for the distribution of local activity in Eptesicus nilssonii, a critically endangered bat species in Germany, a bat detector transect survey was conducted in central Germany. One transect end was close to a maternity roost of E. nilssonii. We compared the bats' use of habitat types and the use of distance zones centred around this maternity roost. We arranged the 11 bat species detected into four foraging categories, E. nilssonii, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, larger open-space bats (Vespertilio murinus, Nyctalus noctula, Eptesicus serotinus) and narrowspace bats (Myotis species). General bat activity was highest in lake and lowest in agricultural habitats. We found significant differences in the use of habitats and distance zones between the ...