Flight activity of bats in different forest habitats
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2006 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The flight activity of bats and its temporal changes were studied from May till August 2005 in ten selected forests, i. e., floodplain forest (1), pine forest (2), thermophilous oak forest (3), lowland beech forest (4), lowland spruce plantation (5), oak-hornbeam forest (6), ravine forest (7), mountain beech forest (8), bog spruce forest (9), and mountain spruce forest (10). The study season was divided into three parts with respect to the bat reproduction, i. e., pregnancy, lactation and post-lactation periods. The point counting method of automatic bat-detectoring was used. The flight activity was recorded in closed, semi-closed and open microhabitats in each studied forest during the first two quarters of the night. In total, 180 recordings were performed during 30 monitoring campaigns. Generally, the level of flight activity of bats detected in six lowland forests (below 300 m a.s.l., 1-6) was significantly higher compared to the activity in four mountain forests (above 700 m a.s.l., 7-10). The highest activity was recorded in the floodplain forest (1) as expected. On the contrary, the mountain spruce forest (10) was utilized by bats only scarcely. The seasonal pattern of activity showed significant differences between lowland and mountain forests. In lowland forests, the highest activity was registered in the pregnancy period and it gradually decreased towards the end of the season. In mountain forests, the level of activity was rather well-balanced throughout the season. In spite of that the lowest activity was obtained in pregnancy period. In all forest habitats, the flight activity was higher at the beginning of the night (1st quarter) than before midnight (2nd quarter). |
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