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The use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, South Africa

The loss of roost sites is one of the major drivers of the worldwide decline in bat populations and roost site preferences, either natural or artificially provided, are not well known for African bat species specifically. In this study we focus on the preference for different artificial roost sites...

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Autores principales: Weier, Sina M., Linden, Valerie M.G., Grass, Ingo, Tscharntke, Teja, Taylor, Peter J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6535037/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31198630
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6954
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author Weier, Sina M.
Linden, Valerie M.G.
Grass, Ingo
Tscharntke, Teja
Taylor, Peter J.
author_facet Weier, Sina M.
Linden, Valerie M.G.
Grass, Ingo
Tscharntke, Teja
Taylor, Peter J.
author_sort Weier, Sina M.
collection PubMed
description The loss of roost sites is one of the major drivers of the worldwide decline in bat populations and roost site preferences, either natural or artificially provided, are not well known for African bat species specifically. In this study we focus on the preference for different artificial roost sites by insectivorous bats in macadamia orchards in northern South Africa. From June 2016 to July 2017 we monitored 31 bat houses, mounted on poles in six macadamia orchards, for presence of bats or other occupants. Twenty-one multi-chambered bat houses of three different designs were erected in sets of three. Additionally, five Rocket boxes, four bat houses in sets of two (painted black and white) and one colony bat house were erected. Bats were counted and visually identified to family or species level. From December 2016 to the end of March 2017 iButtons were installed to record and analyze temperature variation within one set of three bat houses. We related the occupancy of bat houses to the different types of houses and the environmental variables: distance to water, altitude and height of the bat houses above the ground. Overall bat house occupancy was significantly higher in the central bat house, in the set of three, and the black bat house, in the set of two. Mean temperatures differed between houses in the set of three with the central bat house having a significantly higher mean temperature than the houses flanking it. Our study might confirm previous assumptions that the microclimate of bat houses appears to be an important factor influencing occupancy. In conclusion, from the different bat houses tested in this study the designs we assume the warmest and best insulated attracted the most bats. Further research is needed on the preferred microclimate of different bat species, co-habitation within bat houses and the potential importance of altitude and distance to water. Our study provided little variation in both altitude and the distance to water.
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spelling pubmed-65350372019-06-13 The use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, South Africa Weier, Sina M. Linden, Valerie M.G. Grass, Ingo Tscharntke, Teja Taylor, Peter J. PeerJ Agricultural Science The loss of roost sites is one of the major drivers of the worldwide decline in bat populations and roost site preferences, either natural or artificially provided, are not well known for African bat species specifically. In this study we focus on the preference for different artificial roost sites by insectivorous bats in macadamia orchards in northern South Africa. From June 2016 to July 2017 we monitored 31 bat houses, mounted on poles in six macadamia orchards, for presence of bats or other occupants. Twenty-one multi-chambered bat houses of three different designs were erected in sets of three. Additionally, five Rocket boxes, four bat houses in sets of two (painted black and white) and one colony bat house were erected. Bats were counted and visually identified to family or species level. From December 2016 to the end of March 2017 iButtons were installed to record and analyze temperature variation within one set of three bat houses. We related the occupancy of bat houses to the different types of houses and the environmental variables: distance to water, altitude and height of the bat houses above the ground. Overall bat house occupancy was significantly higher in the central bat house, in the set of three, and the black bat house, in the set of two. Mean temperatures differed between houses in the set of three with the central bat house having a significantly higher mean temperature than the houses flanking it. Our study might confirm previous assumptions that the microclimate of bat houses appears to be an important factor influencing occupancy. In conclusion, from the different bat houses tested in this study the designs we assume the warmest and best insulated attracted the most bats. Further research is needed on the preferred microclimate of different bat species, co-habitation within bat houses and the potential importance of altitude and distance to water. Our study provided little variation in both altitude and the distance to water. PeerJ Inc. 2019-05-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6535037/ /pubmed/31198630 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6954 Text en ©2019 Weier et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Agricultural Science
Weier, Sina M.
Linden, Valerie M.G.
Grass, Ingo
Tscharntke, Teja
Taylor, Peter J.
The use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, South Africa
title The use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, South Africa
title_full The use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, South Africa
title_fullStr The use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed The use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, South Africa
title_short The use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, South Africa
title_sort use of bat houses as day roosts in macadamia orchards, south africa
topic Agricultural Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6535037/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31198630
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6954
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