Understanding The Winter Habitats Of Ohios Hibernating Bats

Author : Levi Johnson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 75 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (128 download)

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Download or read book Understanding the Winter Habitats of Ohio’s Hibernating Bats written by Levi Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: North American bat populations have experienced precipitous declines since the introduction of white nose syndrome (WNS). However, bats in areas where WNS has become endemic have begun to respond to the disease. Response to WNS seems to be region and species specific; bats enter hibernation with more body fat, choose colder hibernacula, or show no response and continue to overwinter in the same conditions prior to WNS. A growing body of evidence also exists for bats using aboveground rock crevices, which may have implications for understanding the WNS response, but more research is required to fully understand this hibernation pattern. In this study, I gathered bat population and habitat data via visual surveys of above and belowground hibernacula and QGIS software to better understand WNS response patterns within the state. To investigate the bats’ response to WNS in belowground hibernacula, I conducted an analysis for counts of big brown bats, tricolored bats, and little brown myotis hibernating in caves, mines, and inactive railroad tunnels in relation to several environmental factors including hibernaculum temperature, pre WNS count data, presence of standing water, and density of nearby hibernacula (Chapter 1). To better understand the use of nontraditional hibernacula, I examined the relationship between numbers of big brown bats hibernating in aboveground rock crevices and several habitat features including crevice height above ground, crevice azimuth, elevation, topographic roughness, and distance to water source and nearby belowground hibernacula (Chapter 2). I found that thermally stable belowground hibernacula with standing water were important for WNS susceptible little brown myotis and tricolored bats, while less susceptible big brown bats continued to select their pre-WNS hibernacula where standing water was present. I also found that big brown bats were more likely to be found in aboveground rock crevices that were high off the ground, had high amounts of forest cover, and were at lower elevations. The data presented in this study supports that bats’ response to WNS is region and species specific, and that aboveground rock crevice hibernacula could be a vital winter refuge from WNS. Additionally, this study supports that aboveground rock crevices can function as suitable hibernacula in areas where belowground habitat is scarce, but also expands on this knowledge by showing that several species of bats use rock crevices even when belowground habitat is abundant.