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Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration

The disturbance of wildlife by humans is a worldwide phenomenon that contributes to the loss of biodiversity. It can impact animals’ behaviour and physiology, and this can lead to changes in species distribution and richness. Wildlife disturbance has mostly been assessed through direct observation....

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Autores principales: Costa, Tânia Domingues, Santos, Carlos D., Rainho, Ana, Abedi-Lartey, Michael, Fahr, Jakob, Wikelski, Martin, Dechmann, Dina K. N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7682868/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33226991
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242662
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author Costa, Tânia Domingues
Santos, Carlos D.
Rainho, Ana
Abedi-Lartey, Michael
Fahr, Jakob
Wikelski, Martin
Dechmann, Dina K. N.
author_facet Costa, Tânia Domingues
Santos, Carlos D.
Rainho, Ana
Abedi-Lartey, Michael
Fahr, Jakob
Wikelski, Martin
Dechmann, Dina K. N.
author_sort Costa, Tânia Domingues
collection PubMed
description The disturbance of wildlife by humans is a worldwide phenomenon that contributes to the loss of biodiversity. It can impact animals’ behaviour and physiology, and this can lead to changes in species distribution and richness. Wildlife disturbance has mostly been assessed through direct observation. However, advances in bio-logging provide a new range of sensors that may allow measuring disturbance of animals with high precision and remotely, and reducing the effects of human observers. We used tri-axial accelerometers to identify daytime flights of roosting straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum), which were used as a proxy for roost disturbance. This bat species roosts on trees in large numbers (often reaching hundreds of thousands of animals), making them highly vulnerable to disturbance. We captured and tagged 46 straw-coloured fruit bats with dataloggers, containing a global positioning system (GPS) and an accelerometer, in five roosts in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Zambia. Daytime roost flights were identified from accelerometer signatures and modelled against our activity in the roosts during the days of trapping, as a predictor of roost disturbance, and natural stressors (solar irradiance, precipitation and wind speed). We found that daytime roost flight probability increased during days of trapping and with increasing solar irradiance (which may reflect the search for shade to prevent overheating). Our results validate the use of accelerometers to measure roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats and suggest that these devices may be very useful in conservation monitoring programs for large fruit bat species.
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spelling pubmed-76828682020-12-02 Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration Costa, Tânia Domingues Santos, Carlos D. Rainho, Ana Abedi-Lartey, Michael Fahr, Jakob Wikelski, Martin Dechmann, Dina K. N. PLoS One Research Article The disturbance of wildlife by humans is a worldwide phenomenon that contributes to the loss of biodiversity. It can impact animals’ behaviour and physiology, and this can lead to changes in species distribution and richness. Wildlife disturbance has mostly been assessed through direct observation. However, advances in bio-logging provide a new range of sensors that may allow measuring disturbance of animals with high precision and remotely, and reducing the effects of human observers. We used tri-axial accelerometers to identify daytime flights of roosting straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum), which were used as a proxy for roost disturbance. This bat species roosts on trees in large numbers (often reaching hundreds of thousands of animals), making them highly vulnerable to disturbance. We captured and tagged 46 straw-coloured fruit bats with dataloggers, containing a global positioning system (GPS) and an accelerometer, in five roosts in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Zambia. Daytime roost flights were identified from accelerometer signatures and modelled against our activity in the roosts during the days of trapping, as a predictor of roost disturbance, and natural stressors (solar irradiance, precipitation and wind speed). We found that daytime roost flight probability increased during days of trapping and with increasing solar irradiance (which may reflect the search for shade to prevent overheating). Our results validate the use of accelerometers to measure roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats and suggest that these devices may be very useful in conservation monitoring programs for large fruit bat species. Public Library of Science 2020-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7682868/ /pubmed/33226991 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242662 Text en © 2020 Costa 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, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Costa, Tânia Domingues
Santos, Carlos D.
Rainho, Ana
Abedi-Lartey, Michael
Fahr, Jakob
Wikelski, Martin
Dechmann, Dina K. N.
Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration
title Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration
title_full Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration
title_fullStr Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration
title_full_unstemmed Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration
title_short Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration
title_sort assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7682868/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33226991
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242662
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