Flight activity of bats in a forest
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2007 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Zoologické dny Brno 2007 - Sborník abstzraktů z konference 8.-9.2.2007 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Zoology |
| Keywords | bat activity; detectoring; forest habitats |
| Description | The flight activity of bats and its temporal changes were studied from May till August 2005 in ten forest types, i. e., floodplain forest (A), thermophilous oak forest (B), pine forest (C), oak-hornbeam forest (D), lowland beech forest (E), lowland spruce plantation (F), mountain beech forest (G), ravine forest (H), bog spruce forest (I), and mountain spruce forest (J). The season was devided 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 (8100 minutes) were performed during 30 monitoring campaigns. Generally, the level of flight activity of bats detected in 6 lowland forests (below 300 m a.s.l., A-F) was significantly higher in contrast to the activity in 4 mountain forests (above 700 m a.s.l., G-J). The highest activity was recorded in the floodplain forest (A) as expected. On the contrary, the mountain spruce forest (J) was utilized by bats only scarcely. The seasonal course of activity showed significant differences between lowland and mountain forests. In lowland forests the highest activity was registered in the pregnancy period, then it gradually decreased. In mountain forests the level of activity was rather stable throughout the whole season. 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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