Abstract
Roosts are extremely important for the survival of bats, including night roosts used by bats between commuting feeding bouts during the nights. We compared the characteristics of 17 night roosts of short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx in the forest of Hesha Reservoir with those of 128 diurnal roosts distributed in urban district, Macao, China. The results indicate that significant differences arise in some parameters between night and diurnal roosts. The trees of diurnal roosts were higher than those of night roosts. Diurnal roost sites have higher intensity of human interference than night roost sites. We also compared the characteristics of night tents of C. sphinx with those of diurnal tents, the results indicated that the tent's placement in the tree and the complexity under the tent of the night tents were significantly higher than those of diurnal ones. The area of night roost tents was smaller than that of diurnal ones. Distance between tents to the tree trunk also was significantly different between night and diurnal roosts. We conclude that the differences in functions of these two roost sites contributes to the differences in roost selection strategies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 286-291 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Acta Theriologica Sinica |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| State | Published - 1 Aug 2014 |
Keywords
- Cynopterus sphinx
- Macao
- Night roost site
- Night tent
- Selection