Abstract
Wildlife populations in Southeast Asia are subject to increasing pressure from climate change, habitat loss and human disturbance. Cave-roosting bats are particularly vulnerable to all three factors. Because of the ecological services they provide, it is important to assess specific vulnerabilities to inform their conservation management. We evaluated the reproductive phenology and body condition of Chaerephon plicatus for 14 months in 2015–2016 and quantified guano harvesting at the largest colony in Cambodia in 2011–2016. As in Thailand and Myanmar, two annual breeding cycles were recorded, characterized as continuous bimodal polyoestry, with parturition primarily occurring in April and October. Significant declines occurred in body condition between the late wet season and the late dry season, suggesting that bats experience increasing energetic stress as the dry season progresses. Annual guano harvests increased over the study period but could not be used as a proxy for monitoring population size due to the loss of unknown amounts during the wet season and unquantified movements of bats between C. plicatus colonies in the region. We recommend studies to determine the scale and drivers of such movements and creation of sustainable guano harvesting and population monitoring initiatives to ensure the conservation of C. plicatus colonies in Cambodia.
Highlights
Wildlife populations are subject to increasing pressure from a range of threatening processes worldwide, including climate change, habitat loss and human disturbance
Our study provides the first information on the reproductive ecology of C. plicatus in Cambodia
Still abundant in at least two parts of the country, with several colonies locally protected, the tendency of the species to aggregate in large numbers in caves or buildings renders it vulnerable to hunting for bush meat consumption and human disturbance [31,32]
Summary
Wildlife populations are subject to increasing pressure from a range of threatening processes worldwide, including climate change, habitat loss and human disturbance This is true in Southeast Asia, a region supporting >25% of global bat diversity [1], which has one of the highest deforestation rates in the tropics [2], and where human populations doubled in under four decades to reach 593 million people in 2010 [3]. Large aggregations are characteristic of molossid bats in both New and Old World caves and the evening emergence of such colonies attracts significant numbers of tourists every year [4] They are functionally important due to the substantial services they provide in the suppression of arthropod pests. The pest predation services provided by free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) in protecting cotton yields in the southern US were valued at
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