Season‐modulated responses of Neotropical bats to forest fragmentation

Seasonality causes fluctuations in resource availability, affecting the presence and abundance of animal species. The impacts of these oscillations on wildlife populations can be exacerbated by habitat fragmentation. We assessed differences in bat species abundance between the wet and dry season in a fragmented landscape in the Central Amazon characterized by primary forest fragments embedded in a secondary forest matrix. We also evaluated whether the relative importance of local vegetation structure versus landscape characteristics (composition and configuration) in shaping bat abundance patterns varied between seasons. Our working hypotheses were that abundance responses are species as well as season specific, and that in the wet season, local vegetation structure is a stronger determinant of bat abundance than landscape‐scale attributes. Generalized linear mixed‐effects models in combination with hierarchical partitioning revealed that relationships between species abundances and local vegetation structure and landscape characteristics were both season specific and scale dependent. Overall, landscape characteristics were more important than local vegetation characteristics, suggesting that landscape structure is likely to play an even more important role in landscapes with higher fragment‐matrix contrast. Responses varied between frugivores and animalivores. In the dry season, frugivores responded more to compositional metrics, whereas during the wet season, local and configurational metrics were more important. Animalivores showed similar patterns in both seasons, responding to the same group of metrics in both seasons. Differences in responses likely reflect seasonal differences in the phenology of flowering and fruiting between primary and secondary forests, which affected the foraging behavior and habitat use of bats. Management actions should encompass multiscale approaches to account for the idiosyncratic responses of species to seasonal variation in resource abundance and consequently to local and landscape scale attributes.     

Predicted Effect of Landscape Position on Wildlife Habitat Value of Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Wetlands in a Tile‐drained Agricultural Region

Justification for investment in restored or constructed wetland projects are often based on presumed net increases in ecosystem services. However, quantitative assessment of performance metrics is often difficult and restricted to a single objective. More comprehensive performance assessments could help inform decision‐makers about trade‐offs in services provided by alternative restoration program design attributes. The primary goal of the Iowa Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program is to establish wetlands that efficiently remove nitrates from tile‐drained agricultural landscapes. A secondary objective is provision of wildlife habitat. We used existing wildlife habitat models to compare relative net change in potential wildlife habitat value for four alternative landscape positions of wetlands within the watershed. Predicted species richness and habitat value for birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles generally increased as the wetland position moved lower in the watershed. However, predicted average net increase between pre‐ and post‐project value was dependent on taxonomic group. The increased average wetland area and changes in surrounding upland habitat composition among landscape positions were responsible for these differences. Net change in predicted densities of several grassland bird species at the four landscape positions was variable and species‐dependent. Predicted waterfowl breeding activity was greater for lower drainage position wetlands. Although our models are simplistic and provide only a predictive index of potential habitat value, we believe such assessment exercises can provide a tool for coarse‐level comparisons of alternative proposed project attributes and a basis for constructing informed hypotheses in auxiliary empirical field studies.     

Wildlife habitat analysis – a multidimensional habitat management model

In intensively cultivated landscapes, the effects of land use – changing habitat quality and habitat availability - on wildlife populations are of major importance for wildlife management. Populations of some species reach high densities, grow rapidly, and can therefore cause damage to tree regeneration in forests; chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) is an example. Other species, like capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), suffer from substantial habitat loss resulting in a population decline. Consequently, the number of individuals and the quality of habitat are of crucial relevance for the development of wildlife management concepts. It is critical to know, which areas provide suitable habitat conditions for a species, and what quantity and quality of habitat is required to achieve a certain population size.

In order to evaluate habitat quality and to link wildlife research to practical habitat management, an integrated habitat management model has been designed. The model is based on a multi-dimensional habitat analysis which employs different methodological levels, which were defined according to different spatial scales. On a country scale (level 1), the wildlife ecological landscape type (WELT) is introduced. For this study the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is divided into units which represent distinct regions with similar landscape ecological habitat conditions for wildlife species. On an eco-regional scale (level 2), the landscape ecological habitat potential (LEHP) was developed. It is based on the evaluation of species-related landscape parameters within an exemplary eco-region and provides information about the potential habitat available to a population. On two local scales (level 3: forest district, level 4: forest stand), a habitat structure analysis was conducted, which serves as a foundation for habitat improvement and the monitoring of habitat conditions. The three methodological elements WELT, LEHP and habitat structure analysis were integrated into a habitat management model. The model uses chamois and capercaillie as examples, but can be equally applied to other species and wildlife management regimes.     

Using Mountain Lion Habitat Selection in Management

Wildlife agencies are generally tasked with managing and conserving species at state and local levels simultaneously. Thus, it is necessary for wildlife agencies to understand basic ecological processes of a given species at multiple scales to aid decision making at commensurately varied spatial and behavioral scales. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) occur throughout California, USA, and are at the center of a variety of management and conservation issues. For example, they are genetically and demographically at risk in 1 region yet apparently stable and negatively affecting endangered species in another. Currently, no formal plan exists for mountain lions in California to deal with these diverse scenarios involving issues of local mountain lion population viability and problems related to predation of endangered species. To facilitate development of a state-wide management and conservation plan, we quantified habitat selection by mountain lions at 2 spatial scales across the range of environmental conditions in which the species is found in California. Our analyses used location data from individuals (n = 263) collared across the state from 2001–2019. At the home range scale, mountain lions selected habitat to prioritize meeting energetic demands. At the within home range scale, mountain lions avoided areas of human activity. Further, our analyses revealed 165,350–170,085 km², depending on season, of suitable mountain lion habitat in California. Fifty percent of the suitable habitat was on unprotected lands and thus vulnerable to development. These habitat selection models will help in the development of a state-wide conservation and management plan for mountain lions in California by guiding mountain lion population monitoring through time, prioritization of habitat to be conserved for maintaining demographic connectivity and gene flow, and efforts to mediate mountain lion-prey interactions. Our work and application area will help with wildlife policy and management decisions related to depredation problems at the local scale and issues of habitat connectivity at the statewide scale. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.     

Evaluating model transferability for a threatened species to adjacent areas: Implications for rock‐wallaby conservation

When modelling the distribution of a species, it is often not possible to comprehensively sample the whole distribution of the species and managers may have habitat models based on data from one area that they want to apply in other areas. Hence, an important question is: how accurate are models of the distributions of species when applied beyond the areas where they were developed? A first step in measuring model transferability could be testing models in adjacent areas. We predicted the habitat associations of the brush‐tailed rock‐wallaby (Petrogale penicillata) across two spatial scales in two neighbouring study areas in eastern Australia, south‐east Queensland and north‐east New South Wales. We used classification trees for exploratory data analysis of habitat relationships and then applied logistic regression models to predict species occurrence. We assessed the within‐area discriminative ability of the habitat models using cross‐validation and threshold plots, and tested the predictive ability of the models for adjacent areas using the receiver operating characteristic statistic to determine the area under the curve. We found that models performed well within an area and extrapolating them to adjacent areas resulted in good predictive performance at the site scale but substantially poorer predictive performance at the landscape scale. We conclude that distribution models for wildlife species should only be extrapolated to neighbouring areas with caution when using landscape‐scale environmental variables. Alternatively, only key habitat associations predicted by the models at this scale should be transferred across adjacent areas once verified against local knowledge of the ecology of the study species.     

Scale‐dependent occupancy patterns in reptiles across topographically different landscapes

Understanding what factors influence species occupancy in human‐modified landscapes is a central theme in ecology. We examined scale‐dependent habitat relationships and site occupancy in reptiles across three topographically different study areas in south‐eastern Australia. We collected presence–absence data on reptiles from 443 sites associated with three long‐term biodiversity monitoring programs, on four to seven occasions, between 2001 and 2013. We characterised sites by the following four variable domains: 1) field design, 2) topography, 3) local‐scale vegetation attributes and 4) landscape‐scale vegetation cover. We constructed occupancy models for 14 species and used an information‐theoretic approach to compare multiple alternative hypotheses to explain occupancy within and between study areas. We modelled detection probability and used the model with the lowest AIC in subsequent analyses. We then modelled occupancy probability against all subsets of the variable groups (field design, topography, local‐ and landscape‐scale vegetation), as well as a model that held occupancy constant (null model). We found that local‐scale vegetation attributes were important for explaining site occupancy in 12/19 possible models, although, in several cases model fit was improved by the addition of topographic variables or native vegetation cover in the surrounding landscape. Occupancy models for widespread species were broadly congruent across study areas. We demonstrate that topographic variables are important for explaining reptile occupancy in hilly landscapes, and local‐ and landscape‐scale variables are important for explaining reptile occupancy in flat or gently undulating landscapes. Management actions that improve habitat complexity at a site‐level, and encompass entire topographic gradients, will have greater benefit to woodland reptiles than simply increasing vegetation cover in the surrounding landscape.     

The nest predator community of grassland birds responds to agroecosystem habitat at multiple scales

Nest predation is the leading cause of reproductive failure for grassland birds of conservation concern. Understanding variation in nest predation rates is complicated by the diverse assemblage of species known to prey on nests. As part of a long‐term study of grassland bird ecology, we monitored populations of predators known to prey on grassland bird nests. We used information theoretic approach to examine the predator community's association with habitat at multiple scales, including local vegetation structure of grassland patches, spatial attributes of grassland patches (size and shape), and landscape composition surrounding grassland patches (land cover within 400 and 1600 m). Our results confirmed that nest predators respond to habitat at multiple scales and different predator species respond to habitat in different ways. The most informative habitat models we selected included variability in local vegetation (CV in the density of forbs), local patch (area and edge‐to‐interior ratio), and landscape within a 1600 m buffer around grasslands (percent of land covered by human structures and development). As a separate question, we asked if models that incorporated information from multiple scales simultaneously might improve the ability to explain variation in the predator community. Multi‐ scale models were not consistently superior to models derived from variables focused at a single spatial scale. Our results suggest that minimizing human development on and surrounding conservation land and the management of the vegetation structure on grassland fragments both may benefit grassland birds by decreasing the risk of nest predation.     

Swamp rabbits as indicators of wildlife habitat quality in bottomland hardwood forest ecosystems

Reforestation of bottomland hardwood (BLH) forests has occurred within the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV), USA, to support a wide range of ecosystem services, but especially wildlife habitat enhancement. As ecosystem restoration efforts proceed in BLH ecosystems, managers and policymakers are seeking criteria to evaluate wildlife habitat enhancement goals. Specialist wildlife that evolved within forest ecosystems can be sensitive to the composition, structure, and function of an ecosystem in relation to the system's natural or historical range of variation and thereby serve as indicators of habitat quality. The swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus) is a specialist species of BLH forests throughout the LMAV and therefore may be an appropriate indicator species for this ecosystem. To address this, we reviewed peer-reviewed literature to evaluate the utility of swamp rabbits as an indicator species according to three commonly-used criteria: habitat factors defining swamp rabbit relationships to BLH forests, the importance of swamp rabbit habitat to other wildlife, and the efficiency of swamp rabbit monitoring. We conclude that the swamp rabbit is a suitable indicator of wildlife habitat quality in BLH ecosystems in the LMAV because they evolved and remain endemic to the ecosystem, use habitat that integrates desirable characteristics that positively influence wildlife biodiversity, and are easy to monitor routinely.     

The importance of fine‐scale predictors of wild boar habitat use in an isolated population

1. Predicting the likelihood of wildlife presence at potential wildlife–livestock interfaces is challenging. These interfaces are usually relatively small geographical areas where landscapes show large variation over small distances. Models of wildlife distribution based on coarse data over wide geographical ranges may not be representative of these interfaces. High‐resolution data can help identify fine‐scale predictors of wildlife habitat use at a local scale and provide more accurate predictions of species habitat use. These data may be used to inform knowledge of interface risks, such as disease transmission between wildlife and livestock, or human–wildlife conflict.
2. This study uses fine‐scale habitat use data from wild boar (Sus scrofa) based on activity signs and direct field observations in and around the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. Spatial logistic regression models fitted using a variant of penalized quasi‐likelihood were used to identify habitat‐based and anthropogenic predictors of wild boar signs.
3. Our models showed that within the Forest of Dean, wild boar signs were more likely to be seen in spring, in forest‐type habitats, closer to the center of the forest and near litter bins. In the area surrounding the Forest of Dean, wild boar signs were more likely to be seen in forest‐type habitats and near recreational parks and less likely to be seen near livestock.
4. This approach shows that wild boar habitat use can be predicted using fine‐scale data over comparatively small areas and in human‐dominated landscapes, while taking account of the spatial correlation from other nearby fine‐scale data‐points. The methods we use could be applied to map habitat use of other wildlife species in similar landscapes, or of movement‐restricted, isolated, or fragmented wildlife populations.

     

A Test of the Utility of Exotic Tree Plantations for Understory Birds and Food Resources in the Colombian Andes1

The spatial distribution and abundance of animals are in part determined by the distribution and abundance of their resource base. In the Central Andes of Colombia, monospecific tree plantations have been used to recover vegetative cover in watershed protection programs, but these plantations differ from natural forests in structure, composition, and resources available to wildlife. To evaluate these plantations as habitat for wildlife, we compared the diversity and abundance of understory birds, flowers, and fruits between juxtaposed 40‐yr‐old patches of exotic Chinese ash (Fraxinus chinensis) plantations and naturally regenerated forest of the same age. We observed more fruiting species in the regenerated forest, but there were no differences in total flower and fruit availability between habitat types. We also observed differences between habitats in the size of some understory shrubs, but these differences did not lead to differences between habitats in the diversity and abundance of birds. Capture rates of nectarivores correlated with resource abundance at sampling plot scale, but no such correlation was found for frugivores. Understory frugivorous birds are apparently functioning at a larger spatial scale than the patchiness created by the two habitats. Nectarivorous birds are responding to small‐scale patchiness in resource availability, but not to the different habitats. These results indicate that at small scales, the ash plantation understory provides adequate habitat for birds.     

Modeling Spatial Trends in Estimated Species Richness using Breeding Bird Survey Data: A Valuable Tool in Biodiversity Assessment

We used data from the French breeding bird survey to estimate local bird species richness within sampled sites, using capture–recapture models. We investigated the possible effects of habitat structure and composition (landscape fragmentation, habitat cover and diversity) on estimated species richness at a local scale, and used the identified trends to help with modeling species richness at a large spatial scale. We performed geostatistical analyses based on spatial autocorrelation – cokriging models – to interpolate estimated species richness over the entire country, providing an opportunity to predict species-rich areas. We further compared species richness obtained with this method to species and rarity richness obtained using a national atlas of breeding birds. Estimated species richness was higher in species richness hotspots identified by the atlas. Combining informations on rare species from Atlas and species richness estimates from sound sampling based schemes should help with identifying species-rich areas for various taxa and locating biodiversity hotspots to be protected as high conservation value areas, especially in temperate zones where diversity hotspots are likely to match centers of high species richness because of very few centers of true endemicity.     

Using abundance and habitat variables to identify high conservation value areas for threatened mammals

The present study used abundance and habitat variables to design High Conservation Value Forests for wildlife protection. We considered great apes (Gorilla gorilla gorilla and Pan troglodytes troglodytes) as model species, and we used nest surveys, dietary analysis and botanical inventories to evaluate whether the traditional methods that use abundance data alone were consistent with the survival of the species. We assumed that setting a local priority area for animal conservation can be made possible if at least one variable (abundance or habitat variables) is spatially clustered and that the final decision for a species may depend on the pattern of spatial association between abundance, nesting habitat and feeding habitat. We used Kernel Density Estimation to evaluate the spatial pattern of each biological variable. The results indicate that all three variables were spatially clustered for both gorillas and chimpanzees. The abundance variables of both animal species were spatially correlated to their preferred nesting habitat variables. But while the chimpanzee feeding habitat variable was spatially correlated to the abundance and nesting habitat variables, the same pattern was not observed for gorillas. We then proposed different methods to be considered to design local priority areas for the conservation of each great ape species. Alone, the abundance variable does not successfully represent the spatial distribution of major biological requirements for the survival of wildlife species; we, therefore, recommend the integration of the spatial distribution of their food resources to overcome the mismatch caused by the existence of a biological interaction between congeneric species.     

Projected gains and losses of wildlife habitat from bioenergy‐induced landscape change

Domestic and foreign renewable energy targets and financial incentives have increased demand for woody biomass and bioenergy in the southeastern United States. This demand is expected to be met through purpose‐grown agricultural bioenergy crops, short‐rotation tree plantations, thinning and harvest of planted and natural forests, and forest harvest residues. With results from a forest economics model, spatially explicit state‐and‐transition simulation models, and species–habitat models, we projected change in habitat amount for 16 wildlife species caused by meeting a renewable fuel target and expected demand for wood pellets in North Carolina, USA. We projected changes over 40 years under a baseline ‘business‐as‐usual’ scenario without bioenergy production and five scenarios with unique feedstock portfolios. Bioenergy demand had potential to influence trends in habitat availability for some species in our study area. We found variation in impacts among species, and no scenario was the ‘best’ or ‘worst’ across all species. Our models projected that shrub‐associated species would gain habitat under some scenarios because of increases in the amount of regenerating forests on the landscape, while species restricted to mature forests would lose habitat. Some forest species could also lose habitat from the conversion of forests on marginal soils to purpose‐grown feedstocks. The conversion of agricultural lands on marginal soils to purpose‐grown feedstocks increased habitat losses for one species with strong associations with pasture, which is being lost to urbanization in our study region. Our results indicate that landscape‐scale impacts on wildlife habitat will vary among species and depend upon the bioenergy feedstock portfolio. Therefore, decisions about bioenergy and wildlife will likely involve trade‐offs among wildlife species, and the choice of focal species is likely to affect the results of landscape‐scale assessments. We offer general principals to consider when crafting lists of focal species for bioenergy impact assessments at the landscape scale.     

Phylogenetic and functional diversity area relationships in two temperate forests

Phylogenetic diversity (PD, the diversity of lineages) and functional diversity (FD, the diversity of functional traits or groups in a biological community) reflect important yet poorly understood attributes of species assemblages. Until recently, few studies have examined the spatial variation of PD and FD in natural communities. Yet the relationships between PD and FD and area (termed PDAR and FDAR), like the analogous species–area relationship (SAR), have received less attention and may provide insights into the mechanisms that shape the composition and dynamics of ecological communities. In this study, we used four spatial point process models to evaluate the likely roles of the random placement of species, habitat filtering, dispersal limitation, and the combined effects of habitat filtering and dispersal limitation in producing observed PDARs and FDARs in two large, fully mapped temperate forest research plots in northeast China and in north‐central USA. We found that the dispersal limitation hypothesis provided a good approximation of the accumulation of PD and FD with increasing area, as it did for the species area curves. PDAR and FDAR patterns were highly correlated with the SAR. We interpret this as evidence that species interactions, which are often influenced by phylogenetic and functional similarity, may be relatively unimportant in structuring temperate forest tree assemblages at this scale. However, the scale‐dependent departures of the PDAR and FDAR that emerged for the dispersal limitation hypothesis agree with operation of competitive exclusion at small scales and habitat filtering at larger scales. Our analysis illustrates how emergent community patterns in fully mapped temperate forest plots can be influenced by multiple underlying processes at different spatial scales.     

In search of the best local habitat drivers for saproxylic beetle diversity in temperate deciduous forests

Deadwood-associated species are increasingly targeted in forest biodiversity conservation. In order to improve structural biodiversity indicators and sustainable management guidelines, we need to elucidate ecological and anthropogenic drivers of saproxylic diversity. Herein we aim to disentangle the effects of local habitat attributes which presumably drive saproxylic beetle communities in temperate lowland deciduous forests. We collected data on saproxylic beetles in 104 oak and 49 beech stands in seven French lowland forests and used deadwood, microhabitat and stand features (large trees, openness) as predictor variables to describe local forest conditions. Deadwood diversity and stand openness were consistent key habitat features for species richness and composition in deciduous forests. Large downed deadwood volume was a significant predictor of beetle species richness in oak forests only. In addition, the density of cavity- and fungus-bearing trees had weak but significant effects. We recommend that forest managers favor the local diversification of deadwood types, especially the number of combinations of deadwood positions and tree species, the retention of large downed deadwood and microhabitat-bearing trees in order to maximize the saproxylic beetle diversity at the stand scale in deciduous forests. To improve our understanding of deadwood-biodiversity relationships, further research should be based on targeted surveys on species-microhabitat relationships and should investigate the role of landscape-scale deadwood resources and of historical gaps in continuity of key features availability at the local scale.     

Fine‐scale foraging habitat selection by two diving central place foragers in the Northeast Atlantic

Habitat selection and spatial usage are important components of animal behavior influencing fitness and population dynamic. Understanding the animal–habitat relationship is crucial in ecology, particularly in developing strategies for wildlife management and conservation. As this relationship is governed by environmental features and intra‐ and interspecific interactions, habitat selection of a population may vary locally between its core and edges. This is particularly true for central place foragers such as gray and harbor seals, where, in the Northeast Atlantic, the availability of habitat and prey around colonies vary at local scale. Here, we study how foraging habitat selection may vary locally under the influence of physical habitat features. Using GPS/GSM tags deployed at different gray and harbor seals’ colonies, we investigated spatial patterns and foraging habitat selection by comparing trip characteristics and home‐range similarities and fitting GAMMs to seal foraging locations and environmental data. To highlight the importance of modeling habitat selection at local scale, we fitted individual models to colonies as well as a global model. The global model suffered from issues of homogenization, while colony models showed that foraging habitat selection differed markedly between regions for both species. Despite being capable of undertaking far‐ranging trips, both gray and harbor seals selected their foraging habitat depending on local availability, mainly based on distance from the last haul‐out and bathymetry. Distance from shore and tidal current also influenced habitat preferences. Results suggest that local conditions have a strong influence on population spatial ecology, highlighting the relevance of processes occurring at fine geographical scale consistent with management within regional units.     

宏生态尺度上景观破碎化对物种丰富度的影响

生物多样性的地理格局及其形成机制是宏生态学与生物地理学的研究热点。大量研究表明,景观尺度上的生境破碎化对物种多样性的分布格局具有重要作用,但目前尚不清楚这种作用是否足以在宏生态尺度上对生物多样性地理格局产生显著影响。利用中国大陆鸟类和哺乳动物的物种分布数据,在100 km×100 km网格的基础上生成了这两个类群生物的物种丰富度地理格局,进一步利用普通最小二乘法模型和空间自回归模型研究了物种丰富度与气候、生境异质性、景观破碎化的相关关系。结果表明,景观破碎化因子与鸟类和哺乳动物的物种丰富度都具有显著的关联关系,其方差贡献率可达约30%—50%(非空间模型)和60%—80%(空间模型),略低于或接近于气候和生境异质性因子。方差分解结果显示,景观破碎化因子与气候和生境异质性因子的方差贡献率的重叠部分达20%—40%。相对鸟类而言,景观破碎化对哺乳动物物种丰富度的地理格局具有更高的解释率。     

Stochastic species turnover and stable coexistence in a species-rich, fire-prone plant community

Understanding the mechanisms that maintain diversity is important for managing ecosystems for species persistence. Here we used a long-term data set to understand mechanisms of coexistence at the local and regional scales in the Cape Floristic Region, a global hotspot of plant diversity. We used a dataset comprising 81 monitoring sites, sampled in 1966 and again in 1996, and containing 422 species for which growth form, regeneration mode, dispersal distance and abundances at both the local (site) and meta-community scales are known. We found that species presence and abundance were stable at the meta-community scale over the 30 year period but highly unstable at the local scale, and were not influenced by species' biological attributes. Moreover, rare species were no more likely to go extinct at the local scale than common species, and that alpha diversity in local communities was strongly influenced by habitat. We conclude that stochastic environmental fluctuations associated with recurrent fire buffer populations from extinction, thereby ensuring stable coexistence at the meta-community scale by creating a "neutral-like" pattern maintained by niche-differentiation.     

Does sex matter? Gender‐specific responses to forest fragmentation in Neotropical bats

Understanding the consequences of habitat modification on wildlife communities is central to the development of conservation strategies. However, albeit male and female individuals of numerous species are known to exhibit differences in habitat use, sex‐specific responses to habitat modification remain little explored. Here, we used a landscape‐scale fragmentation experiment to assess, separately for males and females, the effects of fragmentation on the abundance of Carollia perspicillata and Rhinophylla pumilio, two widespread Neotropical frugivorous bats. We predicted that sex‐specific responses would arise from higher energetic requirements from pregnancy and lactation in females. Analyses were conducted independently for each season, and we further investigated the joint responses to local and landscape‐scale metrics of habitat quality, composition, and configuration. Although males and females responded similarly to a fragmentation gradient composed by continuous forest, fragment interiors, edges, and matrix habitats, we found marked differences between sexes in habitat use for at least one of the seasons. Whereas the sex ratio varied little in continuous forest and fragment interiors, females were found to be more abundant than males in edge and matrix habitats. This difference was more prominent in the dry season, the reproductive season of both species. For both species, abundance responses to local‐ and landscape‐scale predictors differed between sexes and again, differences were more pronounced in the dry season. The results suggest considerable sex‐mediated responses to forest disruption and degradation in tropical bats and complement our understanding of the impacts of fragmentation on tropical forest vertebrate communities.