Abstract
Relatively little attention has been devoted to the urban ecology of bats (Chiroptera) despite their ecological importance. Although previous studies have indicated that urbanization has a negative effect on the abundance of bats and bat activity, this relationship may differ among regions. We monitored bat activity during 1997–1999 in 15–20 natural areas distributed across a 3500- km2 area spanning the Chicago metropolitan area in northeastern Illinois. Our objectives were to elucidate relationships between landscape and microhabitat characteristics and bat activity. Bat activity was correlated with visual estimates of abundance. Among adjacent land-use classes, industrial/commercial use was positively related to bat activity in 1997 and 1999, and the predominant rural land use, agriculture, was negatively associated with bat activity in 1998. Proportion of woodland habitat within study areas was positively related to bat activity in every year. There was a positive relationship between agricultural land use and relative use of water sites in each year. Microhabitat analyses revealed that distance between trees was positively related to bat activity in woodlands, and in open habitats there was a relatively strong, negative relationship between distance from the edge and bat activity. Within open habitats, mowed areas had more bat activity than agricultural areas. Our landscape results suggest that the relationship between urbanization and bats may be related to context. Heterogeneous urban landscapes may represent islands of habitat for some bats within larger landscapes dominated by intensive agriculture, such as much of the Midwest.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bolger, D. T., T. A. Scott, and J. T. Rotenberry. 1997. Breeding bird abundance in an urbanizing landscape in coastal Southern California. Conservation Biology 11:406–421.
Brigham, R. M., J. E. Cebek, and M. B. C. Hickey. 1989. Intraspecific variation in the echolocation calls of two species of insectivorous bats. Journal of Mammalogy 70:426–428.
Brigham, R. M., S. D. Grindal, M. C. Firman, and J. L. Morissette. 1997. The influence of structural clutter on activity patterns of insectivorous bats. Canadian Journal of Zoology 75:131–136.
Clergeau, P., J. Jokimaki, and J. L. Savard. 2001. Are urban bird communities influenced by the bird diversity of adjacent landscapes? Journal of Applied Ecology 38:1122–1134.
Czech, B., and P. R. Krausman. 1997. Distribution and causation of species endangerment in the United States. Science 277:1116–1117.
Davis, B. N. K. 1978. Urbanization and the diversity of insects. Pages 126–138 in L. A. Mound and N. Waloff, editors. Diversity of insect faunas. Blackwell, Oxford, and Edinburgh, UK.
Dickman, C. R. 1987. Habitat fragmentation and vertebrate species richness in an urban environment. Journal of Applied Ecology 24:337–351.
Dickman, C. R., and C. P. Doncaster. 1989. The ecology of small mammals in urban habitats. II. Demography and dispersal. Journal of Applied Ecology 58:119–127.
Everette, A. L., T. J. O’Shea, L. E. Ellison, L. A. Stone, and J. L. McCance. 2001. Bat use of a high-plains urban wildlife refuge. Wildlife Society Bulletin 29:967–973.
Fahrig, L., J. H. Pedlar, S. E. Pope, P. D. Taylor, and J. F. Wegner. 1995. Effect of road traffic on amphibian density. Biological Conservation 74:177–182.
Fenton, M. B. 1990. The foraging behaviour and ecology of animal-eating bats. Canadian Journal of Zoology 68:411–422.
Fenton, M. B. 1997. Science and the conservation of bats. Journal of Mammalogy 78:1–14.
Findlay, C. S., and J. Houlahan. 1997. Anthropogenic correlates of species richness in southeastern Ontario wetlands. Conservation Biology 11:1000–1009.
Findley, J. S. 1993. Bats: a community perspective. Cambridge University Press, New York, New York, USA.
Forman, R. T. T., and M. Godron. 1986. Landscape ecology. Wiley and Sons, New York, New York, USA.
Frankie, G. W., and L. E. Ehler. 1978. Ecology of insects in urban environments. Annual Review of Entomology 23: 367–387.
Furlonger, C. L., H. J. Dewar, and M. B. Fenton. 1987. Habitat use by foraging insectivorous bats. Canadian Journal of Zoology 65:284–288.
Gaisler, J., J. Zukal, Z. Rehak, and M. Homolka. 1998. Habitat preference and flight activity of bats in a city. Journal of Zoology 244:439–445.
Geggie, J. F., and M. B. Fenton. 1985. A comparison of foraging by Eptesicus fuscus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in urban and rural environments. Canadian Journal of Zoology 63:263–267.
Germaine, S. S., S. S. Rosenstock, R. E. Schweinsburg, and W. S. Richardson. 1998. Relationships among breeding birds, habitat, and residential development in greater Tucson, Arizona. Ecological Applications 8:680–691.
Gilbert, O. L. 1989. The ecology of urban habitats. Chapman and Hall, New York, New York, USA.
Grindal, S. D., and R. M. Brigham. 1998. Short-term effects of small-scale habitat disturbance on activity by insectivorous bats. Journal of Wildlife Management 62:996–1003.
Grindal, S. D., and R. M. Brigham. 1999. Impacts of forest harvesting on habitat use by foraging insectivorous bats at different spatial scales. Ecoscience 6:25–34.
Havera, S. P., L. B. Suloway, and J. E. Hoffman. 1997. Wetlands in the Midwest with special reference to Illinois. Pages 88–104 in M. W. Schwartz, editor. Conservation in highly fragmented landscapes. Chapman and Hall, New York, New York, USA.
Hayes, J. P. 1997. Temporal variation in activity of bats and the design of echolocation studies. Journal of Mammalogy 78:514–524.
Hayes, J. P. 2000. Assumptions and practical considerations in the design and interpretation of echolocation-monitoring studies. Acta Chiroptologica 2:225–236.
Hayes, J. P. 2003. Habitat ecology and conservation of bats in western coniferous forests. Pages 81–119 in C. J. Zabel and R. G. Anthony, editors. Mammal community dynamics in coniferous forests of western North America: management and conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Hickey, M. B. C., L. Acharya, and S. Pennington. 1996. Resource partitioning by two species of vespertilionid bats (Lasiurus cinereus and Lasiurus borealis) feeding around street lights. Journal of Mammalogy 77: 325–334.
Humes, M. L., J. P. Hayes, and M. W. Collopy. 1999. Bat activity in thinned, unthinned, and old-growth forests in western Oregon. Journal of Wildlife Management 63:553–561.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 1996. Illinois land cover, an atlas. IDNR/EEA-96/05. Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Springfield, Illinois, USA.
Krusic, R. A., M. Yamasaki, C. D. Neefus, and P. J. Pekins. 1996. Bat habitat use in White Mountain National Forest. Journal of Wildlife Management 60:625–631.
Kurta, A., and J. A. Teramino. 1992. Bat community structure in an urban park. Ecography 15:257–261.
Mader, H. J. 1984. Animal habitat isolation by roads and agricultural fields. Biological Conservation 29:81–96.
Mager, K. J., and T. A. Nelson. 2001. Roost-site selection by eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis). American Midland Naturalist 145:120–126.
McDonnell, M. J., and S. T. A. Pickett. 1990. Ecosystem structure and function along urban-rural gradients: an unexploited opportunity for ecology. Ecology 71:1232–1237.
Meritt, D. A., Jr. 1989. Attempted predation of a red bat (Lasiurus borealis) by a Blue Jay. Bat Research News 30:8.
Pierson, E. D. 1998. Tall trees, deep holes, and scarred landscapes: conservation biology of North American bats. Pages 309–325 in T. H. Kunz and P. A. Racey, editors. Bat biology and conservation. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., USA.
Rydell, J. 1992. Exploitation of insects around street lamps by bats in Sweden. Functional Ecology 6:744–750.
Rydell, J., and P. A. Racey. 1995. Street lamps and the feeding ecology of insectivorous bats. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 67:291–307.
Soulé, M. E., D. T. Bolger, A. C. Alberts, J. Wright, M. Sorrce, and S. Hill. 1988. Reconstructed dynamics of rapid extinctions of chaparral-requiring birds in urban habitat islands. Conservation Biology 2:75–92.
Thomas, D. W. 1988. The distribution of bats in different ages of Douglas-fir forests. Journal of Wildlife Management 52:619–626.
Thompson, P. S., J. J. D. Greenwood, and K. Greenway. 1993. Birds in European gardens in the winter and spring of 1988–89. Bird Study 40:120–134.
Walsh, A. L., and S. Harris. 1996. Foraging habitat preferences of vespertilionid bats in Britain. Journal of Applied Ecology 33:508–518.
Walsh. A. L., S. Harris, and A. M. Hutson. 1995. Abundance and habitat selection of foraging vespertilionid bats in Britain: a landscape-scale approach. Symposia of the Zoological Society of London 67:325–344.
Wang, Y., and D. K. Moskovits. 2001. Tracking fragmentation of natural communities and changes in land cover: applications of Landsat data for conservation in an urban landscape (Chicago wilderness). Conservation Biology 15: 835–843.
White, E. P., and S. D. Gehrt. 2001. Effects of recording media on echolocation data from broadband bat detectors. Wildlife Society Bulletin 29:974–978.
Wilcove, D. S., C. M. McLellan, and A. P. Dobson. 1986. Habitat fragmentation in the temperate zone. Pages 237–256 in M. E. Soule, editor. Conservation biology: the science of scarcity and diversity. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts, USA.
Zimmerman, G. S., and W. E. Glanz. 2000. Habitat use by bats in eastern Maine. Journal of Wildlife Management 64: 1032–1040.
Zipperer, W. C., J. Wu, R. V. Pouyat, and S. T. A. Pickett. 2000. The application of ecological principles to urban and urbanizing landscapes. Ecological Applications 10:685–688.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gehrt, S.D., Chelsvig, J.E. (2008). Bat Activity in an Urban Landscape: Patterns at the Landscape and Microhabitat Scale. In: Marzluff, J.M., et al. Urban Ecology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73412-5_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73412-5_29
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-73411-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-73412-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)