Roost preferences and foraging ranges of the eastern forest bat Vespadelus pumilus under two disturbance histories in northern New South Wales, Australia

By Bradley Law, Jason Anderson. 2000

89 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Little is known about the habitat requirements of Australian bats; however, this information is needed to make better-informed decisions when systems are disturbed. This study contrasts the roosting and foraging ecology of the eastern forest bat Vespadelus pumilus (Vespertilionidae), one of Australia’s smallest bats, between two sites of differing disturbance history on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Lorne Flora Reserve (182 ha) is primarily old-growth forest surrounded by regrowth forest and eucalypt plantations, while Swans Crossing is dominated by regrowth and eucalypt plantations established on part of an old dairy farm. A total of 38 bats were tracked during the maternity and mating seasons at the two sites. Roost preferences were determined by comparing trees used as roosts with those randomly available, while foraging bats were triangulated from fixed stations at night. Bats tracked at Lorne Flora Reserve typically roosted in hollows within large, mature trees and showed a strong preference for roosting and foraging (females only) within the Reserve. Lactating females at Swans Crossing roosted in hollows of remnant rainforest trees within a gully and dead eucalypts, while males often roosted in understorey trees (such as Acacia). Dead trees were frequently used as roosts at both sites. Under both disturbance histories, the mean distance of female maternity roosts from creeks was 20 m, indicating that riparian zones provide important roosting habitat for V. pumilus. However, roosts shifted to the mid-slope prior to winter when bats mate. Retention of mature trees in a variety of topographic locations may allow behavioural adjustments with the seasons. Bats caught in the regrowth forest also foraged there, with foraging ranges averaging just 5.3 ha (n = 10), indicating that regrowth is used by this bat for both foraging and roosting.

Subfields: Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f5804597a91c8ad5eb9044a85b64ffed457991b0

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Citations in the corpus

Spatial and temporal patterns of roost use by tree-dwelling barbastelle bats Barbastella barbastellus (2005, background): “Spatial and temporal patterns of roost switching As for other tree-dwelling bat species (Fenton 1983, Brigham et al. 1997, O’Donnell 2000, Law and Anderson 2000, Kurta et al. 2002, Willis and Brigham 2004), roost switching is a common phenomenon in B. barbastellus.”
Summer torpor in a free-ranging bat from subtropical Australia (2003, background): “pumilus are excluded from female maternity roosts and therefore typically roost solitarily (Law and Anderson, 2000).”
Reconsidering the importance of harvested forests for the conservation of tree-dwelling bats (2010, background): “Dead trees lack most branches and foliage, often occur in small, sunny forest gaps, and have no living wood tissue, all features determining warmer roosting conditions ( Law and Anderson 2000 ).”
Emergence time in forest bats: the influence of canopy closure (2007, background): “…transmitters employed for radio-tracking has considerably increased the number of studies on tree-roosting bats (e.g. Lacki and Schwierjohann, 2001; Law and Anderson, 2000; Lumsden et al., 2002; Sedgeley and O’Donnell, 1999a,b; Sedgeley, 2001; Russo et al., 2004, 2005; Willis and Brigham, 2004),…”
Foraging by bats in cleared, thinned and unharvested boreal forest (2003, background): “Differences in habitat use may become apparent only when individual species are investigated (Law, Anderson & Chidel 1999; Law & Anderson 2000; Pavey & Burwell 2000; Menzel et al . 2002).”
Roost selection by barbastelle bats (Barbastella barbastellus, Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in beech woodlands of central Italy: consequences for conservation (2004, background): “In this respect, roosting in dead trees may be advantageous because the absence of living wood tissue may determine warmer roosting conditions (Law and Anderson, 2000).”