2021/11/24 by Anderson, Kathryn, Ibrahim, Steven, Phuong, Connie +1
#acoustics monitoring #bats #spatial distribution #temporal partitioning #water scarcity
paper · doi:10.21973/n3z382
The availability of water sources drives animal occupation in habitats. Moreover, drought prone locations, such as California, cause a stronger distribution of organisms closer to the water sources, which may be more apparent in mobile animals. Bats are an important organism to understand species distribution as they are mobile with, usually, large ranges and depend on water sources just as any other organism. In this study, we set out to investigate if small water sources such as man-made cattle troughs would have an effect on overall bat activity, as well as differences in interspecific activity. We collected bat acoustic data at sites with and without water troughs. We found that there was no overall preference in bats between the two types of sites. But some specific groups of bats preferred the locations near the water trough while another group favored the locations away from the water source. These findings provide more of an understanding on niche partitioning as the group of bats who favor locations without a water source may be doing so to avoid interspecific competition. Overall, this study gives an insight into small-scale distribution and adaptation of bats around resource availability.