Root cellars are important winter roosts for brown long-eared bats (Plecotus auritus) and northern bats (Eptesicus nilssonii) in Latvia

Vintulis, Viesturs; Pētersons, Gunārs

doi:10.1515/mammalia-2012-0104

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Our results revealed greater bat activity at rock outcrops compared to root cellars, which have been considered one of the most important hibernacula in many areas of boreal zone (Rydell 1989;Lesiński et al 2004;Vintulis and Pētersons 2014). Rock outcrops and boulder fields constitute up to 2.5 % of Finland's land area (Kontula et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Winter activity of boreal bats

Blomberg

Vasko

Meierhofer

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Natural hibernation sites used by bats in areas that lack cave features have long remained unresolved. To investigate hibernation site selection and winter activity of boreal bats, we recorded bat calls using passive acoustic monitoring on 16 sites. These sites included four rock outcrops with crevices and cave features, three glacial erratics or boulder fields, three ancient shores, three root cellars and three control sites where we did not expect bats to be overwintering. Our results revealed echolocation calls of Eptesicus nilssonii, Plecotus auritus and Myotis sp. We recorded significantly more activity near rock outcrops and root cellars compared to other habitats. We also found that ambient temperature had a positive effect on bat activity and found evidence that P. auritus may be using low barometric pressure as a proxy for suitable foraging conditions during the winter. Our results suggest that rock outcrops may be more important to bats than previously acknowledged, highlighting the need to take these sites in account in planning of conservation measures. Furthermore, our findings underline the suitability of using acoustic monitoring in homing on hibernation sites that are not otherwise accessible.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Winter activity of boreal bats

Blomberg

Vasko

Meierhofer

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our results revealed greater bat activity at rock outcrops compared to root cellars, which have been considered one of the most important hibernacula in many areas of the boreal zone (Rydell 1989;Lesiński et al 2004;Vintulis and Pētersons 2014). Rock outcrops and boulder fields constitute up to 2.5% of Finland's land area (Kontula et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Winter activity of boreal bats

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Natural hibernation sites used by bats in areas that lack cave features have long remained unresolved. To investigate hibernation site selection and winter activity of boreal bats, we recorded bat calls using passive acoustic monitoring at 16 sites in South-Western Finland. These sites included four rock outcrops with crevices and cave features, three glacial erratics or boulder fields, three ancient shores, three root cellars and three control sites where we did not expect bats to be overwintering. Our results revealed echolocation calls of Eptesicus nilssonii, Plecotus auritus and Myotis sp. We recorded significantly more activity near rock outcrops compared to other habitats, excluding root cellars. We also found that ambient temperature had a positive effect on bat activity and found evidence that P. auritus may be using low barometric pressure as a proxy for suitable foraging conditions during the winter. Our results suggest that rock outcrops may be more important to bats than previously acknowledged, highlighting the need to take these sites in account in planning of conservation measures. Furthermore, our findings underline the suitability of using acoustic monitoring in homing on hibernation sites that are not otherwise accessible.

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“…In this paper we assessed the importance of anthropogenic roosts for bats hibernating in Roztocze National Park (south-east Poland), based on data collected over 13 years. Combining this information with evidence from other parts of Europe (Lesiński et al 2004, Lesiński 2009, Vintulis & Pētersons 2014, we hypothesise that artificial roosts serve as important sites for bat hibernation in this large forest tract.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…The most numerous species recorded wintering in the park was P. auritus, which is also one of the most common bats in Poland (Sachanowicz et al 2006). Furthermore, this species is the most abundant bat hibernating in cellars and basements in northern and western Poland (Lesiński et al 2004, Lesiński 2009 and Latvia (Vintulis & Pētersons 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Importance of anthropogenic winter roosts for endangered hibernating bats

Stachyra

Piskorski

Tchorzewski

et al. 2022

Journal of Vertebrate Biology

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We aimed to assess the importance of anthropogenic roosts for bats hibernating in the Roztocze National Park (south-east Poland), based on data collected from 2009 to 2021. We recorded 310 bats from nine species hibernating in 27 artificial underground roosts (root cellars and basements of buildings). The most abundant and constantly recorded species were Plecotus auritus (60.2%), Barbastella barbastellus (20.6%) and Myotis nattereri (14.2%), while the remaining species can be considered of secondary importance; Plecotus austriacus (1.3%), Myotis myotis (1.9%), Myotis bechsteinii (1.3%), M. daubentonii (0.3%), Myotis mystacinus sensu lato (0.3%) and Eptesicus serotinus (1.3%). An estimate of the Shannon diversity index gave a mean H = 0.947 (SD = 0.247, range 0.377-1.352), while the Buzas and Gibson´s evenness index gave values of E = 0.695 (SD = 0.125, range 0.551-0.940). The Shannon index was positively correlated with the number of recorded bats and varied substantially among years.

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Root cellars are important winter roosts for brown long-eared bats (Plecotus auritus) and northern bats (Eptesicus nilssonii) in Latvia

Cited by 11 publications

References 3 publications

Winter activity of boreal bats

Winter activity of boreal bats

Winter activity of boreal bats

Importance of anthropogenic winter roosts for endangered hibernating bats

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