Wind energy continues to be one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources under development, and while representing a clean energy source, it is not environmentally neutral. Large numbers of bats are being killed at utilityscale wind energy facilities worldwide, raising concern about cumulative impacts of wind energy development on bat populations. We discuss our current state of knowledge on patterns of bat fatalities at wind facilities, estimates of fatalities, mitigation efforts, and policy and conservation implications. Given the magnitude and extent of fatalities of bats worldwide, the conservation implications of understanding and mitigating bat fatalities at wind energy facilities are critically important and should be proactive and based on science rather than being reactive and arbitrary.

The sensitivity of bat species to stochastic disturbance was investigated by exploiting the natural experiment provided by Hurricane Georges, which struck the island of Puerto Rico (Caribbean) in September 1998. Six forest habitats and three cave roost sites sampled for bats prior to the hurricane were sampled in the same way after the hurricane. Populations showed significant declines in abundance and species richness across all forest habitats sampled. Species' sensitivity to disturbance were not equal: larger species were significantly more affected by disturbance than smaller species, once the effects of phylogenetic non-independence were removed. There was some evidence that frugivorous and nectarivorous species are more affected by hurricane disturbance than insectivorous species. These findings have important implications for maintaining viable populations of species in areas that experience a high degree of environmental fluctuation.

The term hot cave is used to describe some subterranean chambers in the Neotropics that are characterized by constantly high ambient temperatures generated by the body heat of high densities of certain bat species. Many of these species have limited geographic ranges, and some occur only in the hot-cave environment. In addition to the bats, the stable microclimate and abundant bat guano provides refuge and food for a high diversity of invertebrates. Hot caves have so far been described in the Caribbean and in a few isolated locations from Mexico to Brazil, although there is some evidence that similar caves may be present throughout the tropics. The existing literature suggests these poorly known ecosystems, with their unique combination of geomorphology and bat-generated microclimate, are particularly sensitive to disturbance and face multiple threats from urbanization, agricultural development, mining, and tourism.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Society of Mammalogists is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Mammalogy.I surveyed use of caves by bats in Puerto Rico. The exact location of each species of bat within the roost was determined for 17 caves. A comparison of variance was performed on the data to test the null hypothesis that occurrence of each species was independent of the others. Nonrandom associations were common among cave-dwelling bats in Puerto Rico. The species showing the strongest associations-Monophyllus redmani, Mormoops blainvillii, and Pteronotus quadridens and Erophylla sezekorni and P. parnellii-were associated with hot caves.

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