Kotowska Dorota, Zegarek Marcin, Osojca Grzegorz, Satory Andrzej, Pärt Tomas, Żmihorski Michał
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland.
Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Białowieża, Poland.
PeerJ. 2020 Jun 18;8:e9385. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9385. eCollection 2020.
Woodpecker diversity is usually higher in natural forests rich in dead wood and old trees than in managed ones, thus this group of birds is regarded as an indicator of forest biodiversity. Woodpeckers excavate cavities which can be subsequently used by several bird species. As a consequence, their abundance indicates high avian abundance and diversity in forests. However, woodpecker-made holes may be also important for other animals, for example, mammals but it has seldom been investigated so far. Here, we examine how well one species, the Great Spotted Woodpecker, predicts species richness, occurrence and acoustic activity of bats in Polish pine forests. In 2011 we conducted woodpecker and bat surveys at 63 point-count sites in forests that varied in terms of stand age, structure and amount of dead wood. From zero to five Great Spotted Woodpeckers at a point-count site were recorded. The total duration of the echolocation calls during a 10-min visit varied from 0 to 542 s and the number of bat species/species groups recorded during a visit ranged between zero to five. The local abundance of the woodpecker was positively correlated with bat species richness (on the verge of significance), bat occurrence and pooled bat activity. The occurrence of and bats and species was positively related with the abundance of the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The activity of and bats and a group of species was not associated with the woodpecker abundance, but echolocation calls of species, and were more often at sites with many Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Moreover, the probability of bat presence and the activity of bats was generally higher shortly after dusk and in middle of the summer than in late spring. We suggest that the observed correlations can be driven by similar roosting habitats (e.g., woodpeckers can provide breeding cavities for bats) or possibly by associated invertebrate food resources of woodpeckers and bats. The abundance of Great Spotted Woodpecker seems to be a good positive indicator of bat species richness, occurrence and activity, thus adding a group of relatively cryptic forest species that are indicated by the presence of the Great Spotted Woodpecker.
啄木鸟的多样性通常在富含枯木和老树的天然林中比在人工林中更高，因此这类鸟类被视为森林生物多样性的一个指标。啄木鸟会挖掘树洞，随后几种鸟类可以利用这些树洞。因此，它们的数量表明森林中鸟类数量众多且种类多样。然而，啄木鸟制造的树洞对其他动物（例如哺乳动物）可能也很重要，但迄今为止很少有人对此进行研究。在这里，我们研究了一种鸟类——斑啄木鸟，对波兰松树林中蝙蝠的物种丰富度、出现情况和声学活动的预测能力如何。2011年，我们在63个点计数样地进行了啄木鸟和蝙蝠调查，这些样地的林分年龄、结构和枯木数量各不相同。在一个点计数样地记录到的斑啄木鸟数量从零到五只不等。在10分钟的访问期间，回声定位叫声的总时长从0到542秒不等，一次访问中记录到的蝙蝠物种/物种组数量在零到五个之间。啄木鸟的局部数量与蝙蝠物种丰富度（接近显著水平）、蝙蝠出现情况以及蝙蝠总活动量呈正相关。[此处原文可能缺失具体蝙蝠种类信息]蝙蝠和[此处原文可能缺失具体蝙蝠种类信息]物种的出现与斑啄木鸟的数量呈正相关。[此处原文可能缺失具体蝙蝠种类信息]蝙蝠和一组[此处原文可能缺失具体蝙蝠种类信息]物种的活动与啄木鸟数量无关，但[此处原文可能缺失具体蝙蝠种类信息]物种、[此处原文可能缺失具体蝙蝠种类信息]和[此处原文可能缺失具体蝙蝠种类信息]的回声定位叫声在斑啄木鸟数量多的地点更常见。此外，蝙蝠出现的概率和蝙蝠的活动通常在黄昏后不久和仲夏时比晚春时更高。我们认为，观察到的这些相关性可能是由相似的栖息生境（例如，啄木鸟可以为蝙蝠提供繁殖洞穴）或可能由啄木鸟和蝙蝠相关的无脊椎动物食物资源驱动的。斑啄木鸟的数量似乎是蝙蝠物种丰富度、出现情况和活动的一个良好的正向指标，从而增加了一类由斑啄木鸟的存在所指示的相对隐秘的森林物种。
