Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Bangalore, Karnataka state, India.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 13;17(7):e0251771. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251771. eCollection 2022.
Cave-dwelling bats widely use anthropogenic structures such as temples in south Asia as roosting and nursery sites. Such roosts are constantly under threat, even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the importance of such roosts, there is no detailed understanding of what makes temples favorable for bats and the critical factors for their persistence. Here we relate temple microhabitat characteristics and land use around ancient temples (>400 years) to bat species richness and abundance in the Tamiraparani river basin of south India. Temples were selected for sampling along the river basin based on logistics and permission to access them. We counted bats at the roost in the mornings and late afternoons from inside the temples. Temple characteristics such as dark rooms, walkways, crevices, towers, and disturbances to the roosts were recorded. Based on European Space Agency land use classifications, we recorded land use such as crops, trees, scrub, grassland, urban areas, and water availability within a 5 km radius of the temple. Generalized Linear Mixed Models were used to relate the counts in temples with microhabitats and land use. We sampled 59 temples repeatedly across 5 years which yielded a sample of 246 survey events. The total number of bats counted was 20,211, of which Hipposideros speoris was the most common (9,715), followed by Rousettus leschenaultii (5,306), Taphozous melanopogon (3,196), Megaderma lyra (1,497), Tadarida aegyptiaca (303), Pipistrellus sp. (144) and Rhinopoma hardwickii (50). About 39% of the total bats occurred in dark rooms and 51% along walkways. Species richness and total abundance were related to the availability of dark rooms and the number of buildings in the temple. Land use elements only had a weak effect, but scrub and grassland, even though they were few, are critical for bats. We conclude that retaining undisturbed dark rooms with small exits in temples and other dimly lit areas and having natural areas around temples are vital for bat conservation.
洞穴栖息的蝙蝠广泛利用南亚的人造结构，如寺庙，作为栖息和育雏场所。这些栖息地一直受到威胁，在 COVID-19 大流行之后更是如此。尽管这些栖息地很重要，但人们对是什么使寺庙对蝙蝠有利以及它们持续存在的关键因素还没有详细的了解。在这里，我们将印度南部 Tamiraparani 河流域的寺庙微生境特征和周围土地利用与蝙蝠物种丰富度和丰度联系起来。根据物流和进入寺庙的许可，我们沿着河流流域选择寺庙进行采样。我们在早晨和傍晚从寺庙内部在蝙蝠栖息地计数。记录了寺庙中黑暗房间、走道、裂缝、塔楼和对栖息地的干扰等特征。根据欧洲航天局土地利用分类，我们记录了寺庙周围 5 公里范围内的作物、树木、灌丛、草地、城市地区和水可用性等土地利用情况。广义线性混合模型用于将寺庙中的计数与微生境和土地利用联系起来。我们在 5 年内对 59 座寺庙进行了重复采样，共获得了 246 次调查事件的样本。共计数蝙蝠 20211 只，其中最常见的是蹄蝠（Hipposideros speoris）（9715 只），其次是棕果蝠（Rousettus leschenaultii）（5306 只）、棕果蝠（Taphozous melanopogon）（3196 只）、大蹄蝠（Megaderma lyra）（1497 只）、埃及果蝠（Tadarida aegyptiaca）（303 只）、短耳蝠（Pipistrellus sp.）（144 只）和大足蝠（Rhinopoma hardwickii）（50 只）。大约 39%的蝙蝠总数出现在黑暗的房间里，51%的蝙蝠出现在走道上。物种丰富度和总丰度与黑暗房间的可用性和寺庙内建筑物的数量有关。土地利用元素只有微弱的影响，但灌丛和草地，尽管数量很少，对蝙蝠来说却是至关重要的。我们的结论是，保留寺庙中未受干扰的带有小出口的黑暗房间和其他昏暗的区域，并在寺庙周围保留自然区域，对蝙蝠保护至关重要。
