Adaptive Roosting Gives Little Brown Bats an Advantage over Endangered Indiana Bats

Bergeson, Scott M.; Carter, Timothy C.; Whitby, Michael D.

doi:10.1674/0003-0031-174.2.321

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…These bat species all tend to prefer exfoliating bark, cavities, or crevices [65,123,126,179]. As the name of the guild suggests, the species here have an affinity for dead or dying trees when selecting a roost [57,87,122]. This guild also contains species known to take advantage of manmade structures, E. fuscus and M. lucifugus [180,181].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Review of the Roost-Site Characteristics of North American Forest Bats: Implications for Conservation

2020

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Continued declines in North American bat populations can be largely attributed to habitat loss, disease, and wind turbines. These declines can be partially mitigated through actions that boost reproductive success; therefore, management aimed at promoting availability of high-quality roosting habitat is an important conservation goal. Following the principles of the umbrella species concept, if co-occurring species share similar roost-tree preferences, then management practices targeting one species may confer conservation benefits to another. We conducted a systematic review of roost-site characteristics of thirteen species inhabiting eastern temperate forests to: (1) synthesize existing knowledge across species; (2) assess niche overlap among co-occurring species; and (3) evaluate the potential for currently protected species to serve as conservation umbrellas. We performed multivariate ordination techniques to group species based on the seven most-reported roost-site characteristics, including tree species, diameter at breast height, tree health, roost type, tree height, canopy closure, and roost height. Species sorted into three roosting guilds: (1) southern wetland inhabitants; (2) foliage specialists; and (3) dead tree generalists. Myotis septentrionalis and Perimyotis subflavus had significant roost-niche overlap with five and four other species respectively, and their existing protections make them suitable umbrellas for other bats in the North American eastern temperate forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Review of the Roost-Site Characteristics of North American Forest Bats: Implications for Conservation

2020

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“…The continuing threats to the species make the broader goal of improving the understanding of population dynamics and life history throughout the year an essential part of this species' protection and recovery. Nonetheless, field studies of Indiana bats during the summer have focused primarily on roosting and foraging habitat requirements (e.g., Carter and Feldhamer 2005;Kurta 2005;Menzel et al 2005;Bergeson et al 2015) rather than population dynamics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When females emerge from hibernation, they spread throughout most of the eastern half of the United States while males stay near the hibernacula (Brack 1983;Gardner and Cook 2002). Females raise their young in maternity colonies that occupy a series of roosts in separate large, usually dead or dying trees (e.g., Humphrey et al 1977;Callahan et al 1997;Kurta 2005;Bergeson et al 2015). Colony members are often not all contained within a single roost tree on any given day; instead, they are split into subgroups that coalesce and subdivide among multiple roost trees spread across the landscape (e.g., Kurta 2005;Whitaker and Sparks 2008;Timpone et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Mark–Recapture Improves Estimates of Maternity Colony Size for Indiana Bats

Oyler‐McCance

Fike

Lukacs

et al. 2017

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management

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Genetic mark–recapture methods are increasingly being used to estimate demographic parameters in species where traditional techniques are problematic or imprecise. The federally endangered Indiana bat Myotis sodalis has declined dramatically and threats such as white-nose syndrome continue to afflict this species. To date, important demographic information for Indiana bats has been difficult to estimate precisely using traditional techniques such as emergence counts. Successful management and protection of Indiana bats requires better methods to estimate population sizes and survival rates throughout the year, particularly during summer when these bats reproduce and are widely dispersed away from their winter hibernacula. In addition, the familial makeup of maternity colonies is unknown, yet important for understanding local and regional population dynamics. We had four objectives in this study. For the first two objectives we investigated the potential use of DNA from fecal samples (fecal DNA) collected at roosts to obtain genetically based mark–recapture estimates of 1) colony size and 2) survival rates, for an Indiana bat maternity colony in Indianapolis, Indiana. The third objective was to compare our genetically based colony-size estimates with emergence counts conducted at the same roost tree to evaluate the genetic mark–recapture method. Our fourth objective was to use fecal DNA to estimate levels of relatedness among individuals sampled at the roost. In the summer of 2008, we collected fecal pellets and conducted emergence counts at a prominent roost tree during three time periods each lasting 7 or 8 d. We genotyped fecal DNA using five highly polymorphic microsatellite loci to identify individuals and used a robust-design mark–recapture approach to estimate survival rates as well as colony size at the roost tree. Emergence count estimates at the roost tree ranged from 100 to 215, whereas genetic mark–recapture estimates were higher, ranging from 122 to 266 and more precise. Apparent survival was 0.994 (SE = 0.04) between sampling periods suggesting that few bats died or permanently emigrated during the course of the study. Relatedness estimates, r, between all pairs of individuals averaged 0.055 ranging from 0 to 0.779, indicating that most individuals were not closely related. We demonstrate here the promise of using fecal DNA to estimate demographic information for Indiana bats and potentially other bat species.

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“…T A B L E 1 Comparison of Indiana bat maternity roost characteristics measured in our study in central Illinois, USA, 2017-2018 with previous studies in southern Illinois (Carter and Feldhamer 2005), southern Illinois and Indiana, USA (Bergeson et al 2015), and central Illinois (Gardner et al 1991). Roost switching is the mean number of times a bat switched roosts divided by the number of days the bat was tracked.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

Larger trees may support larger Indiana bat maternity colonies in a dynamic landscape

et al. 2022

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Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis), federally listed as endangered, are of management concern in eastern North America. While researchers quantified the habitat affinities of the species throughout the range, few studies have occurred in regions where populations are at high risk for wind energy development and changing climes. Central Illinois, USA, is a dynamic landscape where forest area has been increasing in recent decades (on public and private land) because of changing farming practices and increased habitat protections. The increasing availability of large diameter trees, increasing forest biomass, and changing forest compositions have the potential to influence Indiana bat roost habitat preferences. We assessed Indiana bat maternity roost selection at the tree and forest plot scale to characterize patterns of use in this region from 2017-2018. We predicted that large trees on the landscape would support large colonies of Indiana bats. We located bats in multiple species of trees including elm (Ulmus spp.), cottonwood (Populus deltoides), and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata). We documented larger maternity colonies sharing roosts than in previous studies from the 1980s in the same region. We suggest managers and regulatory agencies monitor Indiana bats in dynamic landscapes such as those with changing forest composition and biomass.

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Adaptive Roosting Gives Little Brown Bats an Advantage over Endangered Indiana Bats

Cited by 16 publications

References 28 publications

Systematic Review of the Roost-Site Characteristics of North American Forest Bats: Implications for Conservation

Systematic Review of the Roost-Site Characteristics of North American Forest Bats: Implications for Conservation

Genetic Mark–Recapture Improves Estimates of Maternity Colony Size for Indiana Bats

Larger trees may support larger Indiana bat maternity colonies in a dynamic landscape

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