Insectivorous bats are less active near freeways

Bhardwaj, Manisha; Soanes, Kylie; Lahoz‐Monfort, José J.; Lumsden, Linda F.; Ree, Rodney van der

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0247400

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 61 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the present study, many insectivores considered rare were found roadkilled. The study by Bhardwaj et al (2021) pointed out that the activity of seven of ten insectivorous bats species decreased significantly within the proximity of a highway due to changes created in the surrounding environment by traffic, such as pollution, light, noise, and vibrations. The authors called the surrounding environment a "road effect zone, " and in this area, the habitat is degraded or entirely unsuitable for wildlife, which leads to an indirect loss of habitat (Bhardwaj et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal distribution of bat mortality on a highway in southeast Brazil

Oliveira

Bueno

2022

Therya

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Roads and highways can work as barriers to the movement of many species, thereby preventing the individuals from accessing feeding and reproduction sites and the immediate risk of colliding wild species with vehicles. Identifying the impacts of roads on wildlife can contribute to the establishment of actions that promote conservation. In Brazil, data on collisions between bats and vehicles are scarce and underestimated in the literature. We described bat roadkill from 2008 to 2019 on a stretch of the BR-040 highway, which crosses an area of Atlantic Forest. Roadkill species were identified and the sites with high collision frequencies were characterized. A total of 923 individuals of 57 species and five families of chiropterans were identified. Frugivore bats showed the largest number of affected individuals, with Artibeus lituratus, a common species in the study region, with the highest number of roadkills. The diet and foraging behaviour were the most likely factors explaining most of the bats killed on the highway. The highest roadkill rate was documented in the fall, and the critical points located nearby the APA Petrópolis and REBIO of Tinguá, environmental protection areas. We reinforce the need to mitigate these roadkills, ensuring that road systems, which constitute municipal, state and federal highways, are built to prevent major disturbance of habitat and displacement routes of these species. We believe in the need for mitigations, and considering the various species involved, we suggest speed bumps construction reducing the speed limit, installing bridges, and signaling the presence of wildlife, before the stretches identified as hotspots.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal distribution of bat mortality on a highway in southeast Brazil

Oliveira

Bueno

2022

Therya

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We used 1000 as the road cost value for the five reptile resistance surfaces based on well‐documented negative road effects on turtles and snakes (Garrah et al., 2015 ; Paterson et al., 2019 ; Robson & Blouin‐Demers, 2013 ). Few studies have examined road impacts for Henslow's Sparrow and Northern Long‐eared Bat specifically, but data from closely related species suggest strong behavioral avoidance of roads but unclear mortality risk (Benítez‐López et al., 2010 ; Bennett & Zurcher, 2013 ; Bhardwaj et al., 2021 ; Cooke et al., 2020 ). As a result, we assigned a road cost value of 500 for these two species.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Few studies have examined road impacts for Henslow's Sparrow and Northern Long-eared Bat specifically, but data from closely related species suggest strong behavioral avoidance of roads but unclear mortality risk(Benítez-López et al, 2010;Bennett & Zurcher, 2013;Bhardwaj et al, 2021;Cooke et al, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing habitat connectivity of rare species to inform urban conservation planning

McCluskey,

Kuzma,

Enander

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urbanization is commonly associated with biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation. However, urban environments often have greenspaces that can support wildlife populations, including rare species. The challenge for conservation planners working in these systems is identifying priority habitats and corridors for protection before they are lost. In a rapidly changing urban environment, this requires prompt decisions informed by accurate spatial information. Here, we combine several approaches to map habitat and assess connectivity for a diverse set of rare species in seven urban study areas across southern Michigan, USA. We incorporated multiple connectivity tools for a comprehensive appraisal of species‐habitat patterns across these urban landscapes. We observed distinct differences in connectivity by taxonomic group and site. The three turtle species (Blanding's, Eastern Box, and Spotted) consistently had more habitat predicted to be suitable per site than other evaluated species. This is promising for this at‐risk taxonomic group and allows conservation efforts to focus on mitigating threats such as road mortality. Grassland and prairie‐associated species (American Bumble Bee, Black and Gold Bumble Bee, and Henslow's Sparrow) had the least amount of habitat on a site‐by‐site basis. Kalamazoo and the northern Detroit sites had the highest levels of multi‐species connectivity across the entire study area based on the least cost paths. These connectivity results have direct applications in urban planning. Kalamazoo, one of the focal urban regions, has implemented a Natural Features Protection (NFP) plan to bolster natural area protections within the city. We compared our connectivity results to the NFP area and show where this plan will have an immediate positive impact and additional areas for potential consideration in future expansions of the protection network. Our results show that conservation opportunities exist within each of the assessed urban areas for maintaining rare species, a key benefit of this multi‐species and multi‐site approach.

show abstract

“…This could explain the low occupancy levels of bat boxes in the Iberian Peninsula where it is around 40% (Poulton 2006;Alcalde et al 2020; Sánchez-Poveda 2022). Indeed, there is an increased risk since wind energy will develop greatly (Serrano et al 2020), where the species which use bat boxes will be threatened by these infrastructures (Roemer et al 2017;Bhardwaj et al 2021).…”

Section: Other Considerations About An Uncontrolled Bat Boxes Policy ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

From virtue to sin: is the installation of bat boxes an effective conservation measure or a potential pitfall for vulnerable bat species?

Lisón,

Matus-Olivares,

Carrasco

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bat boxes are a key element in bat conservation policies being very popular. However, it is a biased action that is only favourable for a few bat species. In this manuscript, we hypothesize that the installation of these elements and an extensive proliferation of them could threaten other bat species more vulnerable due to the niche competition. For this, we calculated the overlapping degree between the bat species that use bat boxes and those that do not, specifically: 1) To determine the favourability area of these bat species through habitat suitability models in Iberian Peninsula; 2) To compare the overlapping degree between both bat groups; 3) To elaborate optimal maps for the installation of bat boxes through optimization algorithm; and 4) To discuss the implications for the conservation of this action. Our results showed that the overlapping between bat boxes users and the other species is high (mean 51.8%) and there are areas where a bat boxes not user species could compete with at least 9 bat boxes user species. Therefore, the installation of bat boxes could be counterproductive, and we should focus on other conservation actions. We used an optimization algorithm to find out those areas where it is not recommendable to install them and developed a flowchart to evaluate its installation in an area. In conclusion, our study highlights that conservation actions on some occasions could be negative or be a pitfall for themselves, and it is necessary to discuss the effectiveness of certain measures for bat conservation.

show abstract

Insectivorous bats are less active near freeways

Cited by 8 publications

References 61 publications

Spatial and temporal distribution of bat mortality on a highway in southeast Brazil

Spatial and temporal distribution of bat mortality on a highway in southeast Brazil

Assessing habitat connectivity of rare species to inform urban conservation planning

From virtue to sin: is the installation of bat boxes an effective conservation measure or a potential pitfall for vulnerable bat species?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About