Bat use of golf courses depends on surrounding landscape context

Abstract

Understanding how wildlife responds to altered ecosystems is an important conservation objective. Urban green spaces may support wildlife communities, but their internal and external environments vary substantially. Golf course design and management generally follow standardized best practices, and thus frequently contain similar ecological features. However, studies investigating their conservation value have produced discordant conclusions; therefore, we hypothesize that external environmental factors significantly affect their utility for wildlife. We used acoustic detectors to survey bats at eleven golf courses across a gradient of landscapes (urban, agricultural, and forested) over two years. We used generalized linear mixed models to examine how landscape features surrounding golf courses relate to bat activity. For most species, bat activity was greater on golf courses when the surrounding landscape contained fewer open spaces and more developed land. We conclude that golf courses situated in developed landscapes may provide important foraging habitat for bats. Notably, several species of conservation concern were more active on courses with larger patches of nearby forest. Given that management resources are finite, we recommend using the surrounding landscape to assess the conservation potential of golf courses and allocating effort to improve habitat on golf courses that are most likely to benefit bats and other wildlife.