Journal
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
Volume 115, Issue 3, Pages 463-473Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3207(03)00163-0
Keywords
bats; California; forest cover; habitat selection; landscape; Myotis yumanensis; radiotelemetry; roost trees; streams; urbanization
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Protection of roosting habitat is essential to the conservation of bats in human-dominated landscapes. To help define bat roosting needs in suburban settings, we used radio telemetry to locate day roosts of a common North American species (Myotis yumanensis) within a residential area in California. Between June and August 2000, we tracked 16 bats to 20 roosts in two buildings a lid IS trees. We used multiple logistic regression to assess roost selectivity at multiple spatial scales. Of 15 tree, plot, and site characteristics considered, only three helped distinguish roosts from random comparisons: tree diameter, distance to water, and forest cover. Myotis yumanensis preferred large trees (mean diameter 115 cm). and roosted only in the live species of largest mean diameter (Sequoia sempervirens, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Quercus agrifolia, Quercus lobata, and Acer macrophyllum). At the site level, these bats selected roosts that were close to water and had substantial forest cover in the surrounding 100-m radius. Unlike other North American bats, they often roosted in live trees (89% live). Relatively high roost fidelity (mean 4.8 days) and large travel distances between consecutive roosts (mean 1130 in) and between capture sites and roosts (mean 2007 m) may indicate a greater degree of roost limitation at this site versus other research sites. We recommend the preservation of large trees and forested parkland, particularly along stream corridors, to help maintain bat populations in urbanizing landscapes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available