Activity patterns of two syntopic and closely related aerial-hawking bat species during breeding season in Białowieża Primaeval Forest

Ruczyński, Ireneusz; Zahorowicz, P.; Borowik, Tomasz; Hałat, Zuzanna

doi:10.1007/s13364-016-0298-5

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 72 publications

(95 reference statements)

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“…Generally, bats were most often present and acoustically active just after sunset, and activity was decreasing toward midnight. This result generally confirms earlier findings concerning temporal variation of bat activity, which can be driven by both insect biomass and air temperature (Hayes, 1997;Ruczy nski et al, 2017). Also, more bats were recorded later in the season which may be associated with the appearance of newly weaned juveniles (Ciechanowski et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Spatial patterns of bat diversity overlap with woodpecker abundance

Kotowska

Zegarek

Osojca³

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Woodpecker diversity is usually higher in natural forests rich in dead wood and old trees than in managed ones, thus this group of birds is regarded as an indicator of forest biodiversity. Woodpeckers excavate cavities which can be subsequently used by several bird species. As a consequence, their abundance indicates high avian abundance and diversity in forests. However, woodpecker-made holes may be also important for other animals, for example, mammals but it has seldom been investigated so far. Here, we examine how well one species, the Great Spotted Woodpecker, predicts species richness, occurrence and acoustic activity of bats in Polish pine forests. In 2011 we conducted woodpecker and bat surveys at 63 point-count sites in forests that varied in terms of stand age, structure and amount of dead wood. From zero to five Great Spotted Woodpeckers at a point-count site were recorded. The total duration of the echolocation calls during a 10-min visit varied from 0 to 542 s and the number of bat species/species groups recorded during a visit ranged between zero to five. The local abundance of the woodpecker was positively correlated with bat species richness (on the verge of significance), bat occurrence and pooled bat activity. The occurrence of Eptesicus and Vespertilio bats and Nyctalus species was positively related with the abundance of the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The activity of Pipistrellus pygmaeus, Eptesicus and Vespertilio bats and a group of Myotis species was not associated with the woodpecker abundance, but echolocation calls of Nyctalus species, P. nathusii and P.pipistrellus were more often at sites with many Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Moreover, the probability of bat presence and the activity of bats was generally higher shortly after dusk and in middle of the summer than in late spring. We suggest that the observed correlations can be driven by similar roosting habitats (e.g., woodpeckers can provide breeding cavities for bats) or possibly by associated invertebrate food resources of woodpeckers and bats. The abundance of Great Spotted Woodpecker seems to be a good positive indicator of bat species richness, occurrence and activity, thus adding a group of relatively cryptic forest species that are indicated by the presence of the Great Spotted Woodpecker.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Spatial patterns of bat diversity overlap with woodpecker abundance

Kotowska

Zegarek

Osojca³

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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“…However, M. bechsteinii reached the end of its activity period an average of 12 min sooner than N. leisleri (Table 3). These results are generally in line with previous observations of the activity patterns of N. leisleri (Ruczyński et al 2017, Shiel et al 2007. No comparable studies exist for M. bechsteinii, but in acoustic studies with results reported at the genus level all-night activity was determined for Myotis (Perks & Goodenough, 2020).…”

Section: Species Comparisons Of Circadian Activitysupporting

confidence: 93%

Classifying the activity states of small vertebrates using automated VHF telemetry

Gottwald

Royauté

Becker

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The most basic behavioural states of animals can be described as active or passive. However, while high-resolution observations of activity patterns can provide insights into the ecology of animal species, few methods are able to measure the activity of individuals of small taxa in their natural environment. We present a novel approach in which the automated VHF radio-tracking of small vertebrates fitted with lightweight transmitters (< 0.2 g) is used to distinguish between active and passive behavioural states. A dataset containing > 3 million VHF signals was used to train and test a random forest model in the assignment of either active or passive behaviour to individuals from two forest-dwelling bat species (Myotis bechsteinii (n = 50) and Nyctalus leisleri (n = 20)). The applicability of the model to other taxonomic groups was demonstrated by recording and classifying the behaviour of a tagged bird and by simulating the effect of different types of vertebrate activity with the help of humans carrying transmitters. The random forest model successfully classified the activity states of bats as well as those of birds and humans, although the latter were not included in model training (F-score 0.96–0.98). The utility of the model in tackling ecologically relevant questions was demonstrated in a study of the differences in the daily activity patterns of the two bat species. The analysis showed a pronounced bimodal activity distribution of N. leisleri over the course of the night while the night-time activity of M. bechsteinii was relatively constant. These results show that significant differences in the timing of species activity according to ecological preferences or seasonality can be distinguished using our method. Our approach enables the assignment of VHF signal patterns to fundamental behavioural states with high precision and is applicable to different terrestrial and flying vertebrates. To encourage the broader use of our radio-tracking method, we provide the trained random forest models together with an R-package that includes all necessary data-processing functionalities. In combination with state-of-the-art open-source automated radio-tracking, this toolset can be used by the scientific community to investigate the activity patterns of small vertebrates with high temporal resolution, even in dense vegetation.

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“…3), particularly in relation to niche partitioning responses. As a special case of phenotypic plasticity (Dingemanse et al 2010), niches of potential competitors such as ecomorphologically similar bat species may be partitioned in sympatry by choosing different prey (Arlettaz 1999), habitats (Salsamendi et al 2012), or activity time (Ruczyńki et al 2017, Schimpp et al 2018), whereas such behaviours would differ under allopatric competitive release and permit niche expansion. For example, greater and lesser mouse-eared bats Myotis myotis and Myotis blythii are thought to avoid competition by using different habitats and feeding on different staple prey.…”

Section: Echolocation and Wing Morphologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Interspecific competition in bats: state of knowledge and research challenges

et al. 2019

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1. Interspecific competition (IC) is often seen as a main driver of evolutionary patterns and community structure. Bats might compete for key resources, and cases of exaggerated divergence of resource-related characters or trait overdispersion in bat assemblages are often explained in terms of current or past interspecific competition. However, other pressures leading to patterns that mimic the outcome of competition cannot always be ruled out. 2. We present the state of knowledge on IC among bats, providing a critical evaluation of the information available and identifying open questions and challenges. 3. We reviewed 100 documents addressing potential or actual IC in bats and categorised them in terms of the resource for which bats compete (food, foraging habitat, roosts, water, and acoustic space). We also examined the ecomorphological and behavioural traits considered therein to highlight responses to IC or niche partitioning. 4. We found that: although resources should be limiting in order for competition to occur, this is seldom tested; sympatry is sometimes taken as synonymous of syntopy (yet sympatric species that are not syntopic will never experience competition); comparisons between sympatry and allopatry are rare; and testing of objective criteria exploring the existence of niche partitioning or character displacement is not commonly adopted. 5. While morphological examination of food remains in droppings has often led to coarse-grained analysis that proved insufficient to establish the occurrence of food niche overlap or partitioning, new frontiers are being opened by state-of-the-art molecular dietary analysis. 6. A better understanding of IC in bats is paramount, since distributional changes leading to novel bat assemblages driven by climate change are already taking place, and the dramatic decline in insect availability, as well as the global loss or alteration of foraging habitat, may generate new competitive interactions or exacerbate existing interactions in the Anthropocene, and into the future.

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Activity patterns of two syntopic and closely related aerial-hawking bat species during breeding season in Białowieża Primaeval Forest

Cited by 18 publications

References 72 publications

Spatial patterns of bat diversity overlap with woodpecker abundance

Spatial patterns of bat diversity overlap with woodpecker abundance

Classifying the activity states of small vertebrates using automated VHF telemetry

Interspecific competition in bats: state of knowledge and research challenges

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