Abstract
Some animal species exhibit sex-specific patterns as an adaptation to their habitats, however, adaptability to a human-dominated landscape is commonly explored without considering intraspecific sexual differences. Differences between males and females lead to a sexual segregation in habitat use. In southern Mexico, we explored sex-specific responses to landscape modification of six common species of phyllostomid bats:Artibeus jamaicensis,A. lituratus,Sturnira lilium,Carollia perspicillata,Glossophaga soricina, andPlatyrrhinus helleriusing riparian corridors within continuous forest and cattle pastures. Furthermore, we explored sex related responses to vegetation attributes (i.e., tree height and basal area) and seasonality (i.e., wet and dry seasons). Overall, capture rates were significantly skewed toward females and riparian corridors in pastures. Females ofG. soricinaexhibited a strong positive relationship with greater tree height and basal area. Seasonality was important forA. lituratusandS. liliumfemales, only. The results indicate a sexual driven response of bats to habitat modification. The high energetic demands of females associated to reproduction could lead to foraging into riparian corridors in pastures. The presence of large trees along riparian corridors in pastures may help maintaining a diverse and dynamic bat community in modified tropical landscapes.
Highlights
The configuration of tropical landscapes is highly dynamic as a consequence of changes in landuse and cover (Mayaux et al, 2005; Fagan et al, 2013)
Males and females of the same species may differ in several aspects of their biology, which may result in sexual segregations of habitat use (Lintott et al, 2014) and/or between sex competition (Lemaître et al, 2014; Benitez-Malvido et al, 2016)
We considered the six most abundant species of phyllostomid bats in the region, including the following: Artibeus jamaicensis, A. lituratus, Sturnira lilium, Carollia perspicillata, Glossophaga soricina, and Platyrrhinus helleri, the minimum number of captures needed to be considered in the study were one capture per habitat per season, species abundance cut off of n = 60
Summary
The configuration of tropical landscapes is highly dynamic as a consequence of changes in landuse and cover (Mayaux et al, 2005; Fagan et al, 2013). Males and females of the same species may differ in several aspects of their biology (e.g., sexual dimorphism, different thermoregulatory strategies), which may result in sexual segregations of habitat use (Lintott et al, 2014) and/or between sex competition (Lemaître et al, 2014; Benitez-Malvido et al, 2016). Habitat segregation hypothesis suggests that inherent sexual differences in reproductive strategies i.e., reproductive energy demands, breeding period and predation risk (Dietz et al, 2006; Nardone et al, 2015; Beerman et al, 2016; Benitez-Malvido et al, 2016) result in females trading off habitat quality in favor of offspring safety (Wearmouth and Sims, 2008)
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