Molecular diet analysis of two african free-tailed bats (molossidae) using high throughput sequencing.

Given the diversity of prey consumed by insectivorous bats, it is difficult to discern the composition of their diet using morphological or conventional PCR-based analyses of their faeces. We demonstrate the use of a powerful alternate tool, the use of the Roche FLX sequencing platform to deep-sequence uniquely 5' tagged insect-generic barcode cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) fragments, that were PCR amplified from faecal pellets of two free-tailed bat species Chaerephon pumilus and Mops condylurus (family: Molossidae). Although the analyses were challenged by the paucity of southern African insect COI sequences in the GenBank and BOLD databases, similarity to existing collections allowed the preliminary identification of 25 prey families from six orders of insects within the diet of C. pumilus, and 24 families from seven orders within the diet of M. condylurus. Insects identified to families within the orders Lepidoptera and Diptera were widely present among the faecal samples analysed. The two families that were observed most frequently were Noctuidae and Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera). Species-level analysis of the data was accomplished using novel bioinformatics techniques for the identification of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU). Based on these analyses, our data provide little evidence of resource partitioning between sympatric M. condylurus and C. pumilus in the Simunye region of Swaziland at the time of year when the samples were collected, although as more complete databases against which to compare the sequences are generated this may have to be re-evaluated.This study was supported by Bat Conservation International, Etatsraad Georg Bestle og Hustrus Mindelegat and the Oticon Fonden (KB and CN), the Danish Council for Independent Research Natural Sciences ‘Skou’ award (MTPG), and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada post-doctoral fellowship (ELC). These funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This study was also supported by the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation, who provided field assistance and therefore had a role in data collection

Mitigating the impact of Bats in historic churches: The response of Natterer's Bats Myotis nattereri to artificial roosts and deterrence

© 2016 Zeale et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Bats frequently roost in historic churches, and these colonies are of considerable conservation value. Inside churches, bat droppings and urine can cause damage to the historic fabric of the building and to items of cultural significance. In extreme cases, large quantities of droppings can restrict the use of a church for worship and/or other community functions. In the United Kingdom, bats and their roosts are protected by law, and striking a balance between conserving the natural and cultural heritage can be a significant challenge. We investigated mitigation strategies that could be employed in churches and other historic buildings to alleviate problems caused by bats without adversely affecting their welfare or conservation status. We used a combination of artificial roost provision and deterrence at churches in Norfolk, England, where significant maternity colonies of Natterer's bats Myotis nattereri damage church features. Radio-tracking data and population modelling showed that excluding M. nattereri from churches is likely to have a negative impact on their welfare and conservation status, but that judicious use of deterrents, especially high intensity ultrasound, can mitigate problems caused by bats. We show that deterrence can be used to move bats humanely from specific roosting sites within a church and limit the spread of droppings and urine so that problems to congregations and damage to cultural heritage can be much reduced. In addition, construction of bespoke roost spaces within churches can allow bats to continue to roost within the fabric of the building without flying in the church interior. We highlight that deterrence has the potential to cause serious harm toM. nattereri populations if not used judiciously, and so the effects of deterrents will need careful monitoring, and their use needs strict regulation

Future climatically suitable areas for bats in South Asia

Climate change majorly impacts biodiversity in diverse regions across the world, including South Asia, a megadiverse area with heterogeneous climatic and vegetation regions. However, climate impacts on bats in this region are not well-studied, and it is unclear whether climate effects will follow patterns predicted in other regions. We address this by assessing projected near-future changes in climatically suitable areas for 110 bat species from South Asia. We used ensemble ecological niche modelling with four algorithms (random forests, artificial neural networks, multivariate adaptive regression splines and maximum entropy) to define climatically suitable areas under current conditions (1970–2000). We then extrapolated near future (2041–2060) suitable areas under four projected scenarios (combining two global climate models and two shared socioeconomic pathways, SSP2: middle-of-the-road and SSP5: fossil-fuelled development). Projected future changes in suitable areas varied across species, with most species predicted to retain most of the current area or lose small amounts. When shifts occurred due to projected climate change, new areas were generally northward of current suitable areas. Suitability hotspots, defined as regions suitable for >30% of species, were generally predicted to become smaller and more fragmented. Overall, climate change in the near future may not lead to dramatic shifts in the distribution of bat species in South Asia, but local hotspots of biodiversity may be lost. Our results offer insight into climate change effects in less studied areas and can inform conservation planning, motivating reappraisals of conservation priorities and strategies for bats in South Asia

Roost use by adult female <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i> at Bentham (<i>n</i> = 23), Crakemarsh (<i>n</i> = 25), Shackleford (<i>n</i> = 20), Studland (<i>n</i> = 25) and Willaston (<i>n</i> = 25).

<p>Shows the total number of day roost locations for bats at each site during exclusion experiments, the number of different roost types identified, and the proportional use (parentheses) of each roost type (calculated as the number of incidences that a bat was found roosting in a roost type divided by the total number of diurnal roost locations recorded for the site).</p

Vital rates used in population matrix models for female <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i>.

<p>* Source data for the common pipistrelle <i>P</i>. <i>pipistrellus</i>, a closely related cryptic species of the soprano pipistrelle <i>P</i>. <i>pygmaeus</i>.</p><p>Vital rates used in population matrix models for female <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i>.</p

Modelled population growth rates of <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i>.

<p>Effects of changing age-specific annual survival rates (top) and the constituents of productivity (bottom) on population growth rate of female soprano pipistrelles; the vital rates used are shown in brackets. In the absence of perturbation, the mean stochastic growth rate λ_s was 0.997 i.e. essentially stable.</p

Habitat preferences of adult female <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i> (Crakemarsh <i>n</i> = 14 bats; Shackleford <i>n</i> = 7 bats; Studland <i>n</i> = 15 bats) during control and exclusion periods.

<p>* <i>p</i>-values <0.05 show selection of habitat types is non-random.</p><p>Habitat categories to the left of > are selected over those to the right, with >>> showing a significant difference between adjacent habitat types.</p

Elasticities and sensitivities of matrix cells derived from the population projection matrices for female <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i>.

<p>Elasticities and sensitivities of matrix cells derived from the population projection matrices for female <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i>.</p

Colony home range areas (100% MCPs), foraging areas (90% cluster cores) and range spans (mean maximum nightly distance from roost to centroid of 90% cluster core) for 40 adult female <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i> radio-tracked before (control) and after (exclusion) being excluded from roosts.

<p>* Mean ± SD, calculated as mean (<i>n</i> bats) of means (<i>n</i> bat-days).</p><p>Colony home range areas (100% MCPs), foraging areas (90% cluster cores) and range spans (mean maximum nightly distance from roost to centroid of 90% cluster core) for 40 adult female <i>Pipistrellus pygmaeus</i> radio-tracked before (control) and after (exclusion) being excluded from roosts.</p