Bollettino del CILEA (CILEA) · 2009 · 33 citations · 22 references
Life SciencesConservation BiologyZoologyMammalogyTerrestrial EcologyWildlife Habitat ManagementAnimal EcologyHabitat AssessmentSpecies RichnessWildlife ConservationWildlife EcologyWildlife Habitat AssessmentAcoustic SurveysBat EcologyForaging Habitat AssessmentHabitat PreferencesRiparian Habitat AssessmentSamplingSpecies Abundance AnalysisSpecies-level Sampling
ABSTRACT- The bat fauna of a 60 km2 wide area representing the typical rural landscape of inland Sicily and including the small “Rocche di Entella ” karstic plateau (Natural Re-serve and SAC) was surveyed between May 2006 and September 2007. Sampling was car-ried out at 95 sites, distributed proportionally in six main habitats. Bat calls were time-expanded with a D980 bat detector and then identified to species level by a Discriminant Function Analysis. We recorded 305 bat passes and identified 96.4 % of recorded calls. Moon phase, cloud cover and their interaction did not affect total bat activity, nor did the sampling period. Aquatic and riparian habitats were preferred, whilst Eucalyptus planta-tions and vineyards were avoided. At species level, all bats selected the former habitats, ex-cept H. savii, and avoided field crops, except Myotis sp. Thermo-Mediterranean shrub for-mations showed the highest species richness, whereas vineyards had the lowest. Our study emphasizes the value of riparian habitats and low-intensity farming for bat conservation.
22