Importance of anthropogenic winter roosts for endangered hibernating bats

Przemysław Stachyra,Michał Piskorski,Robert W Mysłajek,Klaudia Łopuszyńska-Stachyra,Mirosław Tchórzewski

doi:10.25225/jvb.21071

Abstract

We aimed to assess the importance of anthropogenic roosts for bats hibernating in the Roztocze National Park (south-east Poland), based on data collected from 2009 to 2021. We recorded 310 bats from nine species hibernating in 27 artificial underground roosts (root cellars and basements of buildings). The most abundant and constantly recorded species were Plecotus auritus (60.2%), Barbastella barbastellus (20.6%) and Myotis nattereri (14.2%), while the remaining species can be considered of secondary importance; Plecotus austriacus (1.3%), Myotis myotis (1.9%), Myotis bechsteinii (1.3%), M. daubentonii (0.3%), Myotis mystacinus sensu lato (0.3%) and Eptesicus serotinus (1.3%). An estimate of the Shannon diversity index gave a mean H = 0.947 (SD = 0.247, range 0.377-1.352), while the Buzas and Gibson´s evenness index gave values of E = 0.695 (SD = 0.125, range 0.551-0.940). The Shannon index was positively correlated with the number of recorded bats and varied substantially among years.

Highlights

Insectivorous bats have high metabolic rates while euthermic and, have substantial nutritional requirements (Kunz & Fenton 2003).This feature of their biology translates directly into the consumption of large quantities of insects, including pest species that cause significant losses in agriculture and forestry (Lacki et al 2007, Puig-Montserrat et al 2015), and they thereby provide significant ecosystem services (Boyles et al 2011)
With the number of bats recorded in winter roosts (Table 1), but it did not correlate with evenness indices
In line with our expectations, small anthropogenic roosts, such as storage cellars and basements, were used for hibernation by several species of bats wintering in the Roztocze National Park

Summary

Introduction

Insectivorous bats have high metabolic rates while euthermic and, have substantial nutritional requirements (Kunz & Fenton 2003). This feature of their biology translates directly into the consumption of large quantities of insects, including pest species that cause significant losses in agriculture and forestry (Lacki et al 2007, Puig-Montserrat et al 2015), and they thereby provide significant ecosystem services (Boyles et al 2011). The majority of bat species are primarily associated with forests (Kunz & Fenton 2003, Lacki et al 2007).

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Conclusion