Bats: City Slickers or Country Bumpkins?

Abstract

New York state is home to 9 bat species which all play a major role in ecosystems, such as with pollination and seed dispersal. They are often categorized into two categories based on their roosting behaviors within caves or trees. Other habitat attributes such as canopy cover and access to waterbodies also determine their regional abundance. Human encroachment of natural habitat has led to bat populations establishing colonies in artificial structures. The exact diversity of bat populations that exist within human settlements, particularly between rural and urban developments, is not well understood. To better understand these diversity differences, we evaluated the presence of bat species in northeastern New York along a developed urban and rural route. We hypothesized that the rural habitat would have a higher bat species richness, diversity, and frequency of detections. Using the Echo Meter Touch 2, a ultrasonic frequency detector, we identified bat calls along two separate routes, specifically an urban and rural site. We then spatially analyzed bat locations in ArcGIS and extracted canopy cover and habitat types within 200m of each location. We detected a total of 24 bats, with 11 and 13 along the urban and rural routes respectively. Bat communities were 80% similar with 4 shared species and two unique urban species. The most frequently detected bat was the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), with a total of 11 detections. These results suggest that many of the bat species in northeastern NY have been successfully adapting to anthropogenic development. As research continues, it will be important to survey long-term and during seasons when they are most active. Given the threats of disease white nose fungus (Pseudogymnoascus destructans) and climate change, it is essential that monitoring efforts such as this be supported among state agencies and citizen scientists.