Flight activity of Noack's round-leaf bat (Hipposideros cf. ruber) at two caves in central Ghana, West Africa

• Autorzy: Nkrumah E.E. , Badu E.K. , Baldwin H.J. , Anti P. , Klose S.M. , Vallo P. , Drosten C. , Kalko E.K.V. , Oppong S.K. , Tschapka M.
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Noack's round-leaf bat Hipposideros cf. ruber is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we present some aspects of its ecology from two caves in central Ghana. Our main objective was to assess the nightly and annual flight activity and to examine the influences of ambient temperature on flight activity. We tested the hypothesis that flight activity of the species is concentrated at certain periods of the night and the year using mist-netting data from 2,712 captured bats. We found no evidence for annual fluctuations in flight activity, probably due to no distinct seasonal limitation of food resources, no migration, and the lack of extreme environmental conditions in the study area. Our hypothesis of concentrated nightly flight activity was confirmed for one cave but not for the other. Flight activity was concentrated early in the night (20:00, 21:00 and 22:00 hours) at one cave, possibly to take advantage of locally available early active prey insects, while it was uniformly distributed throughout the night at the other. Lastly, we found a reduction in the flight activity of H. cf. ruber when there was a distinct drop in temperature over the night. We therefore suggest the reduction in flight activity may result from the direct effects of temperature on prey abundance as the bats responded by reducing activity to avoid excessive prey search costs.

• Wydawca: -
• Czasopismo: Acta Chiropterologica
• Rocznik: 2017
• Tom: 19
• Numer: 2
• Opis fizyczny: p.347-355,fig.,ref.

Twórcy

autor

Nkrumah E.E.

• Department of Wildlife and Range Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

autor

Badu E.K.

• Department of Wildlife and Range Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

autor

Baldwin H.J.

• Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
• Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany

autor

Anti P.

• Department of Wildlife and Range Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

autor

Klose S.M.

• Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany

autor

Vallo P.

• Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany
• Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Kvetna 8, 603 65 Brno, Czech Republic

autor

Drosten C.

• Institute of Virology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn 53127, Germany

autor

Kalko E.K.V.

• Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Panama

autor

Oppong S.K.

• Department of Wildlife and Range Management, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

autor

Tschapka M.

• Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Panama

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Identyfikatory

DOI

10.3161/15081109ACC2017.19.2.011