Habitat use of female gray bats assessed using aerial telemetry
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
Abstract
Gray bats (Myotis grisescens) were listed as endangered in 1976 because of population declines resulting from cave disturbance. The Gray Bat Recovery Plan identified the need to understand habitat use by this species. Yet, this need has never been adequately addressed, partly because gray bats are a highly mobile species with large home ranges, making ground-based tracking methods problematic. The objective of this study was to gather information on the foraging behavior of gray bats using aerial telemetry. We radio-tracked 112 reproductive female gray bats from 5 maternity colonies in Arkansas from a fixed-winged aircraft, in June-July of 2014 and 2015. We used fixed-kernel density to estimate the home range used by each colony and each individual. We performed a compositional analysis to determine land cover types selected by gray bats. Aerial telemetry was successful with 15 independent locations gathered for 42 individuals and an error of approximately 400m. Mean 95% individual home range was larger in 2014 (362.224.9 [SE] km(2)) than in 2015 (57.9 +/- 8.6km(2)). Female gray bats traveled and foraged over water proportionally more than expected based on availability. Our results show that aerial telemetry is suitable to track bat movements, and given its large home range size, management strategies for gray bats should extend beyond protecting roost sites to include waterways and riparian areas.
First Page
1242
Last Page
1253
DOI
10.1002/jwmg.21299
Publication Date
2017
Recommended Citation
Moore, Patrick R.; Risch, Thomas S.; Morris, D. Keith; and Rolland, Virginie, "Habitat use of female gray bats assessed using aerial telemetry" (2017). Faculty Publications. 28.
https://arch.astate.edu/scm-biofac/28
