Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, United States of America.
School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Athens, Ohio, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Aug 24;15(8):e0237103. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237103. eCollection 2020.
The eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) is widely considered to be in decline, inspiring interest in identifying important habitats for conservation in the eastern United States. Unfortunately, knowledge of important day-roosting habitats is lacking for much of the species' range. We examined patterns of day-roost selection by male and female eastern red bats at two study sites in southeastern Ohio, U. S. A, to help fill this information gap. We radio-tagged 28 male and 25 female bats during the summers of 2016-2019 and located 53 male and 74 female roosts. Day-roost selection differed between sexes and study areas. In a mostly even-aged forest with significant historical disturbance, we found males and females roosting in trees located at higher elevations, with no clear selection based on tree or stand characteristics. Specifically, males selected trees with larger diameters located at lower, cooler elevations than females, which selected smaller diameter trees found at higher, warmer elevations. However, in a forest with less historical disturbance and more structural diversity, we found sexes differed in how they selected from available habitats. These data show that heterogeneity in environmental conditions can lead to different patterns in selection, even between sites located within a small geographic area. They also show that eastern red bats sexually segregate on the local landscape in the presence of diverse forest conditions but may not do so in the absence of such diversity. We recommend managing forests to maintain structural diversity across an elevational gradient to provide male and female eastern red bats with suitable day-roosting habitat in southeast Ohio.
东方蝙蝠（Lasiurus borealis）被广泛认为正在减少，这激发了人们对确定美国东部重要保护栖息地的兴趣。不幸的是，该物种的大部分分布范围内，人们对重要的日间栖息地知之甚少。我们在美国俄亥俄州东南部的两个研究地点研究了雄性和雌性东方蝙蝠的日间栖息地选择模式，以帮助填补这一信息空白。我们在 2016 年至 2019 年的夏季对 28 只雄性和 25 只雌性蝙蝠进行了无线电追踪，并找到了 53 只雄性和 74 只雌性栖息地。日间栖息地选择在性别和研究区域之间存在差异。在一个以历史干扰为主、树木年龄相对均匀的森林中，我们发现雄性和雌性蝙蝠在海拔较高的地方栖息在树上，没有明显的选择基于树木或林分特征。具体来说，雄性选择的树木直径较大，位于较低、较凉爽的海拔高度，而雌性选择的树木直径较小，位于较高、较温暖的海拔高度。然而，在一个历史干扰较少、结构多样性较大的森林中，我们发现性别在如何从可用栖息地中进行选择方面存在差异。这些数据表明，即使在地理位置较小的区域内，环境条件的异质性也会导致选择模式的不同。它们还表明，在存在不同森林条件的情况下，东方蝙蝠在当地景观上存在性别隔离，但在没有这种多样性的情况下则不一定如此。我们建议管理森林，以在海拔梯度上保持结构多样性，为俄亥俄州东南部的雄性和雌性东方蝙蝠提供合适的日间栖息地。
