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Urban Bats and their Parasites

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Urban Bats

Part of the book series: Fascinating Life Sciences ((FLS))

Abstract

Understanding host-parasite relationships in urban environments provides information critical for understanding bat ecology in anthropogenically altered landscapes. Although most current evidence comes from bat-virus systems, links between bats and their ectoparasites and endoparasites can provide key examples of how anthropogenic change affects bat health, roosting and foraging ecology, and, ultimately, bat conservation. This chapter examines the current state of knowledge and identifies potentially understudied aspects of urban bats and their parasites. Urbanisation can potentially modulate bat-parasite associations by affecting resource availability, ecophysiology, behaviour, and life history of bats. Urbanisation may also influence how these effects vary among parasites, bat species, and bat age classes. We distinguish between the effects of urbanisation in relation to ectoparasites and endoparasites, with one illustrative case study of each. The first case study examines ectoparasites of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) along an urban-rural gradient. It found some indications that M. lucifugus were more heavily parasitised in the city, likely because this was where the bats were most abundant and because ectoparasitism often rises along with host population density. The second case study investigates how anthropogenic habitat disturbance contributes to shifting helminth communities in big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Land cover categories with more intense human activities were most likely to have similar helminth communities, likely because worms that parasitise more ecologically sensitive, intermediate hosts are more prone to extirpation with increasing anthropogenic disturbance. Finally, we conclude by suggesting that the tightly linked nature of the host-parasite relationship provides unique opportunities to address key urban ecology questions related to host foraging and roosting in urban areas, host-vector contact rates in disturbed habitat, and host susceptibility in response to anthropogenic stressors.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Elizabeth M. Warburton

  2. Department of Biology, University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada

    Erin Swerdfeger

  3. Department of Biology, Queens College at the City University of New York, Queens, NY, USA

    Joanna L. Coleman

Authors
  1. Elizabeth M. Warburton
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  2. Erin Swerdfeger
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  3. Joanna L. Coleman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vaughan, ON, Canada

    Lauren Moretto

  2. Department of Biology, Queens College at the City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA

    Joanna L. Coleman

  3. Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Christina M. Davy

  4. Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    M. Brock Fenton

  5. Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben- Gurion, Israel

    Carmi Korine

  6. Department of Biology, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Krista J Patriquin

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Warburton, E.M., Swerdfeger, E., Coleman, J.L. (2022). Urban Bats and their Parasites. In: Moretto, L., Coleman, J.L., Davy, C.M., Fenton, M.B., Korine, C., Patriquin, K.J. (eds) Urban Bats. Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13173-8_4

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