Distribution of cave-dwelling bats and conservation status of underground habitats in the Istanbul area

Populations of cave-dwelling bat species were investigated in the transitory region between the Eastern Thrace and the Western Pontus. Data were collected during 30 surveys in 13 underground sites, 10 of which had not been surveyed previously by bat researchers, between March 1999 and March 2000. Approximately 20 000 bats representing eight species were recorded. Grouping the sites according to their ecological resemblance, by means of cluster and correspondence analyses, yielded different results for the summer and winter data. In summer, there was a partial separation of the sites by their location in biogeographic regions. In winter, no regional grouping was observed. It was concluded that in the transitory region, species distribution does not differ considerably between the Eastern Thracian and Western Pontic ecosystems. In addition, a conservation scoring system is proposed for those sites investigated, their status is evaluated, and the most important local roosts are identified.     

太行山南段洞栖蝙蝠的分布及栖息地重要性分析

2009年8月至2010年9月,对太行山南段的洞栖蝙蝠及栖息地进行了调查,共调查洞穴38个,其中28个洞穴为首次调查,共观察到蝙蝠约17000只,隶属2科4属9种,其中分布最广、数量最多的是马铁菊头蝠。测量洞穴的总水平长度、最大宽度和最大高度,并以洞穴内蝙蝠的种群数量(Ai)与根据物种生存状态赋值的权重(Mi)乘积之和评估洞穴重要性。在调查的洞穴中,最重要的洞穴是黄楝树水渠,有8种约2500只蝙蝠在此繁殖和冬眠;其次是涧河洞,有5种约2100只蝙蝠在此繁殖和冬眠。基于洞栖蝙蝠种类和洞穴测量数据的聚类及主成分分析,探讨了太行山南段东西两侧洞栖蝙蝠的分布状况、不同类型栖息地之间的差异以及洞栖蝙蝠对栖息地的选择。太行山南段东西两侧洞栖蝙蝠的种类和种群数量差异不显著。冬眠洞穴的总水平长度、最大宽度、最大高度、郁闭度均显著大于非冬眠洞穴。影响蝙蝠栖息地选择的主要因子有地形因子、隐蔽因子和干扰因子,这3个主成分的累计贡献率达到85.96%。目前,这些洞穴的保护现状均不理想,一些洞穴已经或正在被开发成旅游景点,这使该地区洞栖蝙蝠面临严重的生存危机。本研究结果以期能为决策者在制定开发旅游策略时提供参考和依据。     

Thermoregulation and roost selection by reproductive female big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) roosting in rock crevices

A free-ranging maternity colony of big brown bats Eptesicus fuscus roosting in rock crevices along the South Saskatchewan River in south-eastern Alberta, Canada, was studied to understand better the discrepancy that exists in the literature regarding torpor use by reproductive female bats. Using radio-telemetry, thermoregulatory patterns and roost microclimate were recorded for pregnant, lactating and post-lactating females. Relative torpor use is described in several ways: the proportion of days on which torpor was used, depth, minimum body temperature, time spent in torpor, and a comprehensive torpor unit (degree-min). Pregnant and lactating female E. fuscus used torpor to the same extent overall (degree-min), but pregnant bats used torpor less frequently and with more time in deep torpor. Torpor was used to the greatest extent after weaning (post-lactation). Evidence is presented that the cost:benefit ratio for deep and prolonged periods of torpor may be highest during lactation. Microclimates of rock-crevice roosts mirrored the use of torpor throughout reproduction by bats. Lactation roosts (deeper, larger opening size) were more thermally stable and remained warmer at night compared to the shallow roosts used by pregnant and post-lactating females. It is shown that conclusions about relative use of torpor can differ depending on the units of comparison, necessitating measurement of all aspects of torpor (depth, duration and frequency). Comprehensive measurements, individual-based normothermic temperatures, and a definition of torpor that accounts for all energy savings, allow a more accurate depiction of patterns and facilitates inter-study comparisons.     

中华菊头蝠的栖息生态特征及种群保护

中华菊头蝠(Rhinolophus sinicus)主要分布于我国境内,属于典型的洞栖食虫性蝙蝠,具有重要的研究意义与保护价值。近年,在湘西州境内的16个溶洞中对其栖息生态特征进行了观察,共记录到其个体12942只次,数据分析结果显示：该蝠是该区域溶洞中的居留型优势蝠种,具有集群冬眠的习性。每年的9月中下旬开始逐步聚群冬眠,翌年的3月底开始苏醒,其夏季的繁育场所非常隐蔽,通常位于人无法进入的洞段或人迹罕至的洞穴。总体上,其栖点主要集中于距洞口150—200 m(91.60%)的洞段,离地高度6—10 m(91.75%),多以“双足悬挂”的栖姿将身体悬空倒挂于洞道的顶壁。其体温与栖点温度之间不存在显著性差异(P>0.05),但具有明显的线性正相关关系(R~2=0.8886)。其栖点安全性春夏季高,秋冬季中等偏低。中华菊头蝠作为该区域洞栖性蝙蝠的优势种,在维持洞穴生态系统的稳定中发挥着至关重要的作用,加强对洞穴生态系统中蝙蝠伞护性的研究有助于洞穴生态保护教育及对蝙蝠种群的保护实践。     

河南省洞栖蝙蝠的多样性与保护

2011 年6 月至2013 年7 月,利用雾网和抄网捕捉蝙蝠,采用直接计数、拍照等方法统计蝙蝠的数量,调查了河南省60 个洞穴中蝙蝠的种类、数量及分布,根据蝙蝠的外形及头骨特征鉴定种类,计3 科6 属17 种,其中易危(VU)物种3 种,近危(NT)和无危(LC)物种各7 种。马铁菊头蝠和菲菊头蝠为河南省广布种。依据洞穴的开发情况和人类入洞活动的频度等,评估洞穴的干扰程度,30 个洞穴属严重干扰,10 个洞穴属轻度干扰,20 个洞穴属自然状态。依据洞穴中蝙蝠的种类、数量及濒危程度,将洞穴的相对重要性划分为4 个级别,级别1 和多数级别2 的洞穴具有大的空间和复杂的洞穴系统,这些洞穴既是蝙蝠的繁殖地又是冬眠场所,其中栖息的蝙蝠种类多且数量大。对洞穴的总长度、最大宽度和最大高度进行了测量,比较4 个级别洞穴的测量数据,级别1 洞穴的总长度、最大宽度、最大高度的平均值明显大于其他级别。目前,多数洞穴未得到很好的保护,由于旅游开发等原因,洞栖蝙蝠正面临着严重的生存危机。     

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Roost Structure,Modification, and Availability in the White‐throated Round‐eared Bat,Lophostoma silvicolum (Phyllostomidae) Living in Active Termite Nests1

We studied roost structure, modification, and availability in Lophostoma silvicolum (Phyllostomidae), an insectivorous gleaning bat, on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panamá. Collection of nest material beneath termitaria and infrared video filming indicated that males of L. silvicolum excavate and maintain cavities inside active termite nests. A binary logistic regression analysis showed that to be suitable as roosts, termite nests have to be larger than 30 cm in diameter and taller than 30 cm, well shaded, with few transecting branches, and freely accessible from below. Use of active termite nests as roosts may provide several benefits to L. silvicolum, including reduction of competition for roost sites with sympatric bat species, reduced parasite load and a suitable microclimate. A comparison of number of all termite nests in selected forest plots with number of termite nests that are potentially suited as bat roosts and number of termite nests that are actually used by bats suggests that L. silvicolum may not be roost‐limited on BCI in spite of its highly specialized roost choice.     

Drivers affecting habitat use in Afrotropical hipposiderid and pteropodid bats

Assessing how bats respond to habitat attributes requires an integrative approach to reliably predict direct community-level effects. We focused on hipposiderid and pteropodid bats because of their diverse resource use patterns, body size ranges, and dispersal abilities. We combined an array of bat species-level characteristics with key forest stand characteristics that may covary with habitat use. Twelve stations were sampled in the Lomami and Yangambi landscapes, Democratic Republic of the Congo. We investigated whether species-level flight ability of bats and forest stand characteristics can affect bat commuting flights and community-level estimates of both species detection and habitat occupancy. We captured bats for 108 trap-nights. Three sampling events (early evening, middle of the night, and early morning) were replicated for each survey night. Hipposiderids showed an early evening flight peak, while flight activity of pteropodids was constant throughout the night, but increased around the middle of the night. Species capture probability decreased with higher wing loading in hipposiderids and was negatively correlated with higher wing aspect ratio in pteropodids. Forest occupancy of hipposiderids increased along the gradient towards waterways, while pteropodid occurrence was not directly linked to measured forest stand variables. This suggests a consequence of habitat patterns at larger spatial scales, which would need clarifying through additional data collection. We discuss these findings in terms of resource-use strategies of clutter-tolerant and clutter-intolerant species. We argue that the occurrence of specific bat species and their habitat use patterns can serve as surrogate measures of ecosystem health.     

Social communication in bats

Bats represent one of the most diverse mammalian orders, not only in terms of species numbers, but also in their ecology and life histories. Many species are known to use ephemeral and/or unpredictable resources that require substantial investment to find and defend, and also engage in social interactions, thus requiring significant levels of social coordination. To accomplish these tasks, bats must be able to communicate; there is now substantial evidence that demonstrates the complexity of bat communication and the varied ways in which bats solve some of the problems associated with their unique life histories. However, while the study of communication in bats is rapidly growing, it still lags behind other taxa. Here we provide a comprehensive overview of communication in bats, from the reasons why they communicate to the diversity and application of different signal modalities. The most widespread form of communication is the transmission of a signaller's characteristics, such as species identity, sex, individual identity, group membership, social status and body condition, and because many species of bats can rely little on vision due to their nocturnal lifestyles, it is assumed that sound and olfaction are particularly important signalling modes. For example, research suggests that secretions from specialized glands, often in combination with urine and saliva, are responsible for species recognition in several species. These olfactory signals may also convey information about sex and colony membership. Olfaction may be used in combination with sound, particularly in species that emit constant frequency (CF) echolocation calls, to recognize conspecifics from heterospecifics, yet their simple structure and high frequency do not allow much information of individual identity to be conveyed over long distances. By contrast, social calls may encode a larger number of cues of individual identity, and their lower frequencies increase their range of detection. Social calls are also known to deter predators, repel competitors from foraging patches, attract group mates to roost sites, coordinate foraging activities, and are used during courtship. In addition to sound, visual displays such as wing flapping or hovering may be used during courtship, and swarming around roost sites may serve as a visual cue of roost location. However, visual communication in bats still remains a poorly studied signal modality. Finally, the most common form of tactile communication known in bats is social grooming, which may be used to signal reproductive condition, but also to facilitate and strengthen cooperative interactions. Overall, this review demonstrates the rapid advances made in the study of bat social communication during recent years, and also identifies topics that require further study, particularly those that may allow us to understand adaptation to rapidly changing environmental conditions.     

洞穴型蝙蝠的栖息环境选择、生态作用及保护

多数蝙蝠为洞穴型。在野外调查的基础上,结合前人调查的结果,对洞穴型蝙蝠的栖息环境选择及其在洞穴生态系统中的特殊生态作用进行了探讨。针对目前随着人类活动的增加,洞穴型蝙蝠的生存环境遭到日益严重的干扰、破坏和污染而导致蝙蝠的物种多样性降低,加之国内对洞穴型蝙蝠研究不足的现状,提出了加强对洞穴型蝙蝠的栖息和捕食环境进行保护、对蝙蝠的多样性进行调查的建议。     

Life history,ecology and longevity in bats

The evolutionary theory of aging predicts that life span should decrease in response to the amount of mortality caused by extrinsic sources. Using this prediction, we selected six life history and ecological factors to use in a comparative analysis of longevity among 64 bat species. On average, the maximum recorded life span of a bat is 3.5 times greater than a non-flying placental mammal of similar size. Records of individuals surviving more than 30 years in the wild now exist for five species. Univariate and multivariate analyses of species data, as well as of phylogenetically independent contrasts obtained using a supertree of Chiroptera, reveal that bat life span significantly increases with hibernation, body mass and occasional cave use, but decreases with reproductive rate and is not influenced by diet, colony size or the source of the record. These results are largely consistent with extrinsic mortality risk acting as a determinant of bat longevity. Nevertheless, the strong association between life span and both reproductive rate and hibernation also suggests that bat longevity is strongly influenced by seasonal allocation of non-renewable resources to reproduction. We speculate that hibernation may provide a natural example of caloric restriction, which is known to increase longevity in other mammals.     

Distribution of ground-dwelling beetles in fragmented tropical habitats

The conservation of biodiversity is increasingly dependent on human-altered habitats. In a fragmented forest landscape in northern Costa Rica within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, an area of great conservation importance, we compared the diversity and composition of ground-dwelling beetle communities in five habitat types along a gradient of increasing disturbance: primary forest, logged forest, secondary forest, plantation (Gmelina arborea) and pasture. Using pitfall trapping we captured a total of 1,877 beetles (Coleoptera), comprising 422 morphospecies in 26 families. The plantation sites had the lowest number of species followed by secondary forest and pasture. Multivariate analysis separated the beetle fauna according to land use, and suggested that only the logged forest maintains a similar species assemblage to primary forest. However, each habitat harboured a number of unique species indicating the conservation value of the mosaic of habitats found in fragmented landscapes. Our results suggest that to maintain forest beetle species diversity it is essential that areas of natural forest are conserved. However, other land uses also provide beetle habitats and in fragmented areas active management to maintain a mosaic of land uses will contribute to the conservation of beetle diversity.     

我国翼手类分子系统地理学研究进展

近25 年,分子系统地理学研究发展迅速,成为进化及生态学领域一研究热点。翼手目动物具有独特的表型特征和生态属性。对其开展分子系统地理学研究有助于揭示该类群种群遗传现状、地理分布格局及其形成过程。本文从研究种类、方法、内容及成果方面总结了我国翼手类分子系统地理学研究进展,并分析了今后应完善的方面。     

Big family,warm home,and lots of friends: Pteronotus large colonies affect species richness and occupation inside caves

Roosts are essential for the survival of most animals. Due to homothermic requirements, mammals are particularly dependent on roost quality and availability. Bats select their roosts in a species-specific way, likely related to species´ different physiological and adaptive needs. Unlike species whose individuals roost solitarily, roost selection is critical for bats forming large colonies due to the requirements for maintaining thousands of individuals in a single shelter. This is the case of Pteronotus (Mormoopidae), whose colonies reach hundreds of thousands of bats. Using captures, bioacoustics, and automated censuses, we evaluated how cave size, ceiling characteristics, environmental stability, temperature, and humidity influence the formation of exceptionally large colonies, species richness and composition in caves in north-eastern Brazil. We expected that colonies would be positively related to cave size and stability, internal cave selection would be species-specific, but larger and more environmentally stable caves would have higher richness. Pteronotus colonies were positively related to cave size, stability, and ceiling characteristics, and their presence strongly influenced cave temperature variation. Species richness was positively correlated to a cave stability index. Species other than Pteronotus preferred different climatic and ceiling characteristics. We detected an indirect influence of the large colonies of Pteronotus on the species richness and occupation inside caves. On the other hand, such caves favor species coexistence, as they offer a range of microenvironments, reducing niche overlap in their interior. Pteronotus gymnonotus and Pteronotus personatus are both key- and umbrella-species for cave ecosystems, stressing the need for specific conservation strategies in Brazil. Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.     

Roosting ecology of endangered plant‐roosting bats on Okinawa Island: Implications for bat‐friendly forestry practices

Roosting information is crucial to guiding bat conservation and bat‐friendly forestry practices. The Ryukyu tube‐nosed bat Murina ryukyuana (Endangered) and Yanbaru whiskered bat Myotis yanbarensis (Critically Endangered) are forest‐dwelling bats endemic to the central Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan. Despite their threatened status, little is known about the roosting ecology of these species and the characteristics of natural maternity roosts are unknown. To inform sustainable forestry practices and conservation management, we radio‐tracked day roosts of both species in the subtropical forests of Okinawa''s Kunigami Village District. We compared roost and roost site characteristics statistically between M. ryukyuana nonmaternity roosts (males or nonreproductive females), maternity roosts, and all M. yanbarensis roosts. Generalized linear models were used to investigate roost site selection by M. ryukyuana irrespective of sex and age class. Lastly, we compiled data on phenology from this and prior studies. Nonreproductive M. ryukyuana roosted alone and primarily in understory foliage. Murina ryukyuana maternity roosts were limited to stands >50 years old, and ~60% were in foliage. Myotis yanbarensis roosted almost entirely in cavities along gulch bottoms and only in stands >70 years old (~1/3 of Kunigami''s total forest area). Murina ryukyuana maternity roosts were higher (4.3 ± 0.6 m) than conspecific nonmaternity roosts (2.3 ± 0.5 m; p < .001) and M. yanbarensis roosts (2.7 ± 0.5 m; not significant). Model results were inconclusive. Both species appear to be obligate plant roosters throughout their life cycle, but the less flexible roosting preferences of M. yanbarensis may explain its striking rarity. To conserve these threatened bats, we recommend the following forestry practices: (a) reduce clearing of understory vegetation, (b) refrain from removing trees along streams, (c) promote greater tree cavity densities by protecting old‐growth forests and retaining snags, and (d) refrain from removing trees or understory between April and July, while bats are pupping.