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Aggregative response in bats: prey abundance versus habitat

  • Behavioral ecology - Original research
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Abstract

In habitats where prey is either rare or difficult to predict spatiotemporally, such as open habitats, predators must be adapted to react effectively to variations in prey abundance. Open-habitat foraging bats have a wing morphology adapted for covering long distances, possibly use information transfer to locate patches of high prey abundance, and would therefore be expected to show an aggregative response at these patches. Here, we examined the effects of prey abundance on foraging activities of open-habitat foragers in comparison to that of edge-habitat foragers and closed-habitat foragers. Bat activity was estimated by counting foraging calls recorded with bat call recorders (38,371 calls). Prey abundance was estimated concurrently at each site using light and pitfall traps. The habitat was characterized by terrestrial laser scanning. Prey abundance increased with vegetation density. As expected, recordings of open-habitat foragers clearly decreased with increasing vegetation density. The foraging activity of edge- and closed-habitat foragers was not significantly affected by the vegetation density, i.e., these guilds were able to forage from open habitats to habitats with dense vegetation. Only open-habitat foragers displayed a significant and proportional aggregative response to increasing prey abundance. Our results suggest that adaptations for effective and low-cost foraging constrains habitat use and excludes the guild of open-habitat foragers from foraging in habitats with high prey abundance, such as dense forest stands.

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Acknowledgments

The study was financed by the INTERREG IV program (project Nr. 68). We are grateful to C. Strätz for checking our bat species determinations and to V. Runkel for discussions on the affiliation of two species to one of the foraging guilds. Paul A. Racey and Holly K. Ober provided helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We thank Karen A. Brune for linguistic revision of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bavarian Forest National Park, Freyunger Str. 2, 94481, Grafenau, Germany

    Jörg Müller, Milenka Mehr & Claus Bässler

  2. Chair for Terrestrial Ecology, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany

    Jörg Müller

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

    M. Brock Fenton

  4. Institute for Statistics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Ludwigstraße 33, 80539, Munich, Germany

    Torsten Hothorn

  5. Chair for Forest Growth and Yield Science, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Germany

    Hans Pretzsch & Hans-Joachim Klemmt

  6. Bavarian State Institute of Forestry, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 1, 85354, Freising, Germany

    Hans-Joachim Klemmt

  7. Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch Strasse 8, 35032, Marburg, Germany

    Roland Brandl

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Communicated by Janne Sundell.

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Müller, J., Mehr, M., Bässler, C. et al. Aggregative response in bats: prey abundance versus habitat. Oecologia 169, 673–684 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-2247-y

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