Roost selection by bats in buildings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Fagan, Kirstin E.; Willcox, Emma V.; Tran, Liem; Bernard, Riley F.; Stiver, William H.

doi:10.1002/jwmg.21372

Cited by 23 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…A large portion of its range is in central America, where they make use of palms and other substrates uncommon in temperate areas [161,162]. Finally, tree-roost publications for E. fuscus and M. lucifugus may be explained by their propensity for roosting in man-made structures [163,164]. However, none of the bats included in our review are obligate manmade-structure inhabitants.…”

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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“…To date, relatively few studies have investigated the process of roost selection in bats occupying buildings [15,[23][24][25][26]. Distance to woodland and water, coverage at roost sites, linear vegetation elements, and temperature have all been shown to influence roost selection for several bat species [15,27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roost selection by Mauritian tomb bats (Taphozus mauritianus) in Lilongwe city, Malawi – importance of woodland for sustainable urban planning

O’Malley

Kunin

Town³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Increasing urbanisation has led to a greater use of artificial structures by bats as alternative roost sites. Despite the widespread presence of bats, roost availability may restrict their distribution and abundance in urban environments. There is limited quantitative information on the drivers of bat roost selection and roosting preferences, particularly in African bats. We explore the factors influencing roost selection in the Mauritian tomb bat (Taphozous mauritianus), within an urban landscape in Lilongwe city, Malawi. Eight building and five landscape features of roosts were compared with both adjacent and random control buildings throughout the city. Bat occupied buildings were situated closer to woodland (mean 709m) compared to random buildings (mean 1847m) but did not differ in any other landscape features explored. Roosts were situated on buildings with larger areas and taller walls, suggesting bats select features for predator-avoidance and acoustic perception when leaving the roost. Bats preferred buildings with exposed roof beams which may provide refuge from disturbance. Whilst roosts are situated more often on brick walls, this feature was also associated with landscape features, therefore its importance in roost selection is less clear. These results are indicative that T. mauritianus selects roosts at both the building and landscape level. The selectivity of T. mauritianus in relation to its roost sites implies that preferred roosts are a limited resource, and as such, conservation actions should focus on protecting roost sites and the woodland bats rely on.

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“…The little brown myotis and northern long-eared myotis, two species identified through our case study, are of special concern as a result of declines from WNS (Frick et al 2010;Langwig et al 2012). These species were not observed roosting in buildings during surveys in 2015 or 2016 (Fagan et al 2017). The little brown myotis, identified in this study through the analysis of 11 guano pellets, was commonly captured and documented roosting in buildings before WNS was documented in GRSM (Harvey 1987;E.R.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…We analyzed sequences in DnaSP (v5; Librado and Rozas 2009) to determine intraspecific nucleotide diversity (P I ), as well as nucleotide diversity within genera, when applicable. We used the reference database to identify bat species from DNA extracted from guano samples collected as part of a study examining roost selection by bats in GRSM (Fagan et al 2017). To assess bat occurrence in buildings, researchers at the University of Tennessee surveyed 140 buildings in Tennessee and North Carolina three times between 15 May and 14 August 2015, with approximately 1 mo between sampling periods.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following these declines, managers wanted to know what bat species were present in GRSM buildings in order to permit appropriate management and conservation efforts. In surveys of buildings conducted during the summer of 2015 (Fagan et al 2017), researchers observed roosting big brown bat, eastern small-footed myotis M. leibii, and Rafinesque's big-eared bat. In other buildings, however, guano was the only indication of roosting bats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identification of Southeastern Bat Species Using Noninvasive Genetic Sampling of Individual Guano Pellets

Brown

Willcox

Fagan

et al. 2017

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management

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The impact of white-nose syndrome on North American bat populations may limit the effectiveness of traditional monitoring methods, including roost surveys, mist netting, and acoustic monitoring, and, in turn, determination of bat species occurrence. Genetic markers from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from feces (i.e., guano pellets) may provide an effective alternative method for assessing occurrence. We used an existing genetic marker from the 16S ribosomal subunit, mitochondrial DNA, to create a DNA sequence database for the 16 species of bats known to occur in Tennessee. We used our database to identify bat species from DNA extracted from 68 guano pellets collected from accumulations found in buildings of Great Smoky Mountains National Park from May to August 2015. No bats were directly observed at 19 roost buildings (55.9% of all identified roost buildings), where genetic analysis of guano was the only method available to determine species occurrence. Two of the species we detected roosting in buildings using DNA from guano, the little brown myotis Myotis lucifugus and northern long-eared myotis M. septentrionalis, are of special concern as a result of declines from white-nose syndrome. There are no records of the northern long-eared myotis roosting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park buildings, and no records of the little brown myotis roosting in buildings since white-nose syndrome became established in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our findings emphasize the utility of these genetic techniques for detecting bat species when visual or acoustic methods may be compromised by species rarity, elusive behavior, or similarities in species morphology and call characteristics.

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Roost selection by bats in buildings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Cited by 23 publications

References 51 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

Roost selection by Mauritian tomb bats (Taphozus mauritianus) in Lilongwe city, Malawi – importance of woodland for sustainable urban planning

Identification of Southeastern Bat Species Using Noninvasive Genetic Sampling of Individual Guano Pellets

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