Abstract
An inventory of chiropteran fauna was carried out in Bhubaneswar city, Odisha, eastern India during October 2015 and March 2016 following roost survey and mist net survey techniques. During the study a total 19 species of bats belonging to seven families including the nationally threatened Rhinolophus rouxii were recorded of which family Vespertilionidae was the most diverse one, represented by five species. Majority of 11 species are found roosting and breeding in old temples and caves and are vulnerable from renovation activities, persecution and tourism. Therefore, long term monitoring of these sites are essential to understand the population trend over time and derive appropriate conservation implications.
Highlights
Urbanization greatly affects the composition and structure of the inhabiting animal communities by transforming the natural habitats into environments dominated by human constructions (McKinney 2006)
We could not report roosting site of Pteropus giganteus within the city limits, we found it foraging on the fruits of Ficus benghalensis, Mangifera indica, Syzygium cumini, and nectar of Bombax ceiba and Neolamarckia cadamba in parks and home gardens
Bat communities in urban habitats are usually dominated by few abundant species (Brosset et al 1996; Lesinski et al 2000) those are adapted to roost in buildings, mines and bridges and forage along open and edge habitats and around street lights (Geggie and Fenton 1985; Rydell 1992; Blake et al 1994; Rydell and Racey 1995; Brosset et al 1996; Jones et al 1996; Fenton 1997; Johnson et al 2008; Voigt et al 2016)
Summary
Urbanization greatly affects the composition and structure of the inhabiting animal communities by transforming the natural habitats into environments dominated by human constructions (McKinney 2006). This situation is more problematic in developing countries as there is sporadic effort for maintaining the ecological requirements necessary for the inhabiting wildlife population (Pickett et al 2001; de Araújo and Bernard 2016). Bats are the most successful group occurring in both natural and human modified landscapes They help in ecosystem functioning through pollination, seed dispersion, and insect pest control as well as recycling and distribution of essential nutrients between habitats (Kunz et al 2011) for which conservation of bats and their roosting sites are essential. In the long run it may alter the species richness by favouring the highly adaptive species and removing
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