Altitudinal distribution of bats in the Pol’ana Mts area (Central Slovakia)

Abstract

In May -August, bats were mist-netted along an altitudinal gradient of 350-1350 m a.s.l. in the Poľana Mts area, to verify the correlation of species number decrease and the increase in elevation, to find which species could be predictors of certain altitude levels and to compare the sexual occurrence of species in various altitudes. Seventeen bat species were recorded. The most abundant mist-netted species were Myotis daubentonii (16%), M. myotis (13%) and M. mystacinus (12%). Otherwise, the most frequently caught species were M. mystacinus (40%), Eptesicus serotinus, M. myotis (26%) and Nyctalus leisleri (23%). In this study at a local scale, from oak to spruce vegetation stages, decreasing number of species with increasing altitude was found. Species dominance of the individual altitudinal levels was significantly different (15 species up to 600 m a.s.l., six species over 1100 m a.s.l.). The results indicated that the occurrence of some bat species, due to their ecological adaptations, is more or less characteristic for higher or lower altitudes of the Western Carpathians. The "lowland" species were considered to be mainly E. serotinus, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, N. noctula, N. leisleri and M. daubentonii. In higher elevations (more than 850 m), the presence of reproductive females was not found, of all but one, N. noctula, of the "lowland" species which are breeding in the area. The "mountain" species were considered to be E. nilssonii and Plecotus auritus. The general occurrence and reproduction of M. mystacinus and Barbastella barbastellus, was not limited by elevation.

Changes of bat species composition over altitudinal gradients on northern and southern aspects of the Soutpansberg mountain range, South Africa

“…As in the previous study (Linden et al 2014), our study did not identify any species as being "upland" species restricted to higher altitudes as found by Kanuch and Kristin (2006) and Delgado-Jaramillo et al (2011). The study of Presley et al (2012) found that the metacommunity structure along an altitudinal gradient differs between bats, rodents and birds.…”

“…Unlike species richness, bat activity generally seems to decrease with altitude. This decrease of bat activity with altitude is suggested to be caused by a decline of reproductive females found with altitude related to lower temperatures and food availability (Grindal et al 1999, Cryan et al 2000, Russo 2002, Erickson and Adams 2003, Kanuch and Kristin 2006, Dunn and Waters 2012.…”

Assemblage structure and use of anthropogenic roosts by bats in the Eastern Carpathians: Case study in the Bieszczady National Park (SE Poland)

“…The most frequent and abundant species recorded were M. daubentonii (a water surface forager) and M. brandtii (an edge zone/gap forager). The former species usually dominates among bats netted over rivers in Central Europe, regardless of elevation, while the latter is more abundant only in some Carpathian areas and forests of eastern Poland Sachanowicz & Ruczyński 2001;Ciechanowski 2002;Kaňuch & Krištín 2006;Kurek et al 2008). As may be expected, netting over small watercourses could undersample high-flying open space foragers from the genera Nyctalus, Vespertilio and Eptesicus.…”

“…Species composition and structure of bat (Mammalia: Chiroptera) assemblages in mountains change with altitude, which is clearly shown by comparing bat faunas of mountains and lowlands or lower mountain elevations with higher ones (Holzhaider & Zahn 2001;Kaňuch & Krištín 2006). The two main factors that influence mountain bat assemblages are altitude-related climate conditions and roost availability.…”

“…some synanthropic species, as the number of settlements in mountains usually sharply decreases with elevation. The abundance of most bat species decreases with elevation while the proportion of adult males to females and juveniles increases, and only adult males are recorded at higher elevations (Holzhaider & Zahn 2001;Kaňuch & Krištín 2006;Kurek et al 2008). …”