Bidirectional movements of Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus nathusii) during autumn at a major migration corridor

Abstract

Migration is well documented for many species throughout the animal kingdom. Although migration is also a common behaviour in bats, it is rarely studied due to the cryptic nature of the phenomenon. Recoveries of banded individuals have shown that Nathusius' pipistrelles (Pipistrellus nathusii) can fly more than 2000 km between their summer and winter ranges in Europe, but further details of how and where they move between the endpoints of their seasonal journeys remain elusive. Here, we used three-dimensional acoustic tracking at a coastal migration corridor to elucidate the flight behaviour of Nathusius' pipistrelles during late summer. Analyzing 432 recorded flight trajectories, we show that the majority of bats followed the expected southerly direction, parallel to the coastline, on all nights, and flying at the optimal speed for long-distance travel with minimal energy expenditure. However, on one day with stronger winds, about 20 % of the bats flew in the opposite, i.e. northerly, direction. The observation of a proportion of individuals flying antiparallel to the mass of migrating conspecifics within the same movement corridor highlights that individuals may follow contrasting movement strategies at the same time and place, presumably depending on environmental conditions. We argue that it is possible for Nathusius’ pipistrelles to fly back and forth (south and north) during autumn migration, spending more time on this migration corridor than required for a straight one-way flight. This highlights the urgent need to protect migration corridors along coastlines, particularly as wind energy development continues.