Roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management
The structure of woodland bat communities is influenced by numerous environmental factors, and amongst these, the availability of suitable roosts is of prime importance. Temperate zone forest-dwelling bats use a great variety of roost types, ranging from natural tree cavities to human-made shelters....
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ftdatacite:10.7892/boris.93824 2023-05-15T15:37:50+02:00 Roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management Schönbächler, C. Arlettaz, Raphaël Kühnert, E. Christe, P. 2016 application/pdf https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.93824 http://boris.unibe.ch/93824/ en eng Springer info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess 570 Life sciences; biology 590 Animals Zoology Text article-journal ScholarlyArticle 2016 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.93824 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z The structure of woodland bat communities is influenced by numerous environmental factors, and amongst these, the availability of suitable roosts is of prime importance. Temperate zone forest-dwelling bats use a great variety of roost types, ranging from natural tree cavities to human-made shelters. Given the frequent habit of forest bats to switch roosts, even within the reproductive season, bat-friendly forest management requires information about the number of cavities necessary to maintain populations. We identified the rate of roost switching, number of roosts used and site characteristics of two forest bat species at risk, the Bechstein’s bat (Myotis bechsteinii) and the Barbastelle bat (Barbastella barbastellus) in suburban forests of SW Switzerland. Radio tracking of 9 M. bechsteinii females showed that a colony used at least 15 roost sites in an area of 3 km2 throughout the reproductive season. B. barbastellus used at least 11 roost sites located in France in two areas 15 km from each other. This illustrates the borderless nature of bat conservation and calls for the maintenance of a transfrontier cooperation programme. There were clear species-specific roost preferences: M. bechsteinii used tree cavities whereas B. barbastellus used exclusively humanmade shelters. These results provide some preliminary guidance for bat-friendly forest management. Text Barbastella barbastellus DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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570 Life sciences; biology 590 Animals Zoology |
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570 Life sciences; biology 590 Animals Zoology Schönbächler, C. Arlettaz, Raphaël Kühnert, E. Christe, P. Roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management |
topic_facet |
570 Life sciences; biology 590 Animals Zoology |
description |
The structure of woodland bat communities is influenced by numerous environmental factors, and amongst these, the availability of suitable roosts is of prime importance. Temperate zone forest-dwelling bats use a great variety of roost types, ranging from natural tree cavities to human-made shelters. Given the frequent habit of forest bats to switch roosts, even within the reproductive season, bat-friendly forest management requires information about the number of cavities necessary to maintain populations. We identified the rate of roost switching, number of roosts used and site characteristics of two forest bat species at risk, the Bechstein’s bat (Myotis bechsteinii) and the Barbastelle bat (Barbastella barbastellus) in suburban forests of SW Switzerland. Radio tracking of 9 M. bechsteinii females showed that a colony used at least 15 roost sites in an area of 3 km2 throughout the reproductive season. B. barbastellus used at least 11 roost sites located in France in two areas 15 km from each other. This illustrates the borderless nature of bat conservation and calls for the maintenance of a transfrontier cooperation programme. There were clear species-specific roost preferences: M. bechsteinii used tree cavities whereas B. barbastellus used exclusively humanmade shelters. These results provide some preliminary guidance for bat-friendly forest management. |
format |
Text |
author |
Schönbächler, C. Arlettaz, Raphaël Kühnert, E. Christe, P. |
author_facet |
Schönbächler, C. Arlettaz, Raphaël Kühnert, E. Christe, P. |
author_sort |
Schönbächler, C. |
title |
Roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management |
title_short |
Roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management |
title_full |
Roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management |
title_fullStr |
Roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management |
title_full_unstemmed |
Roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management |
title_sort |
roost selection and switching in two forest-dwelling bats: implications for forest management |
publisher |
Springer |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.93824 http://boris.unibe.ch/93824/ |
genre |
Barbastella barbastellus |
genre_facet |
Barbastella barbastellus |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.93824 |
_version_ |
1766368503848239104 |