Adaptability and vulnerability of high flying Neotropical aerial insectivorous bats to urbanization

Aim Urbanization is a dominant demographic trend throughout the world that involves massive habitat alterations. Understanding how urbanization affects biota is a crucial prerequisite for development and application of effective species conservation programmes. Our study focuses on Neotropical high flying aerial insectivorous bats, an ecologically important, but so far seriously understudied group of vertebrates. Location Panama. Methods Using acoustic monitoring, we assessed and compared species occurrence, composition and activity of aerial insectivorous bats at three site categories located on the isthmus in Panama: forest, urban areas and a forest–town interface. Results In 2 years of field work, we recorded 44,744 bat passes over the microphone and identified a total of 25 aerial insectivorous bat species. Species richness was highest in the forest, decreased towards the forest–town interface and was lowest at the urban sites, while dominance (Berger‐Parker‐Index) increased from the forest to the urban sites. Overall, general bat activity (passes min^?1) was highest at the forest–town interface and lowest at the urban sites. Multivariate analysis suggests compositional differences in species occurrence and activity among site categories with mainly molossid species occurring in urban areas. Main conclusions Our results clearly demonstrate species‐specific differences between high flying aerial insectivorous bats concerning their adaptability and vulnerability to urban areas. Our results suggest that a suite of morphological traits including species mobility determine persistence of aerial insectivorous species in cities. Our results underline the necessity for detailed assessments of species‐specific habitat requirements and dynamics of species occurrence and activity over time to develop meaningful conservation tools targeted at aerial insectivorous bats.