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Photography as a low-impact method to survey bats

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Author

  • Jens Rydell
  • Danilo Russo

Summary, in English

Bats are mammals of chief conservation concern and also represent potentially powerful bio-indicators. Surveying bats is thus an important task but the approaches adopted may either be too invasive (capture) or prone to identification errors (acoustic methods). We here report on the use of a photographic trap to survey bat species richness we tested at two drinking sites in central Italy. The species richness we estimated was similar to that obtained by a previous mist-netting effort at the same sites. We also photographed species often overlooked in acoustic surveys due to their faint echolocation calls. From the photographs we could frequently identify sex, reproductive status, age class and individual marks. Given the relative non-invasiveness of this approach, we strongly recommend it in lieu of capture at sensitive sites or to complement acoustic surveys in order to improve identification rates. (C) 2014 Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Pages

182-184

Publication/Series

Mammalian Biology

Volume

80

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Ecology

Keywords

  • Bio-indicator
  • Camera trap
  • Diversity
  • Mist netting
  • Monitoring

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1616-5047