Acoustic lure allows for capture of a high‐flying, endangered bat

Abstract

ABSTRACTMist nets are commonly used to capture free‐flying bats; however, some bat species are very difficult to capture because of their flight behavior, habitat preferences, and ability to avoid nets. High‐flying, open‐space foragers are especially underrepresented by mist‐net surveys. Few studies have investigated the effectiveness of using acoustic lures (playbacks of conspecific vocalizations) to increase capture success of bats in mist nets. We tested the efficacy of an acoustic lure to capture a high‐flying rare molossid, the endangered Florida bonneted bat (Eumops floridanus), which had been captured only once away from a known roost prior to our research. We used a crossover experimental design with 2 lure treatments (nets with lures playing social call recordings from 2 different roosts) and 2 control nets (no lures) in 6 sites for 2 nights each. We captured 15 Florida bonneted bats in our treatment nets and 0 in our control nets. One lure had greater capture success (n = 13) than the other (n = 2), with a trend for greater captures of males (n = 11) than females (n = 4). We suggest that these differences were due to the social context in which the calls used in the lures were recorded. Our study demonstrated the utility of acoustic lures to capture Florida bonneted bats and expands research opportunities critical to the species’ conservation, such as the ability to use radio telemetry to track captured bats to unknown roosting and foraging areas. Our study also lays the foundation for future research into social call playbacks as a technique to lure other high‐flying and elusive bat species into mist nets. © 2017 The Wildlife Society.