Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts?

Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts?

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Brown, Bridget Kay Gladden
Language:English
Published: The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2020
Subjects:
Biology
Behavioral Sciences
Ecology
bats
multimodal
replication
roosting ecology
sensory ecology
Online Access:http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586437502549126
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spelling ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu15864375025491262021-08-03T07:14:07Z Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts? Brown, Bridget Kay Gladden Biology Behavioral Sciences Ecology bats multimodal replication roosting ecology sensory ecology Understanding how bats select roosts is crucial to their management and conservation. One way that bats can locate new roosts is by using cues from conspecifics. Research on this use of social information has mostly focused on conspecific calls. In many species, bats will move toward conspecific echolocation and social calls, which can help bats find new roosts faster. However, many roosts also have olfactory cues from guano and urine. Bat conservationists have long debated whether guano and urine can be used to attract bats to new roosts. If chemical cues can act as an effective bat lure, this would aid in efforts to exclude bats from buildings and attract them to artificial roosts in protected areas like state parks or wildlife preserves. In my thesis, I ask if bats use olfactory cues from guano and urine to locate potential roosts. In Chapter 1, I summarized research to date on the topic of the use of olfaction by roost-searching bats and I discuss reasons that bats might, or might not, use scent to locate roosts. From this research, results are consistent with the hypothesis that guano and urine are not strong enough lures to attract bats to new roosts. In Chapter 2, I describe experiments with three bat species given choices between a roosting area treated with guano and urine and an untreated control roosting area in captivity and in the field. This chapter describes experiments done by me (field experiments 1 and 2, captive experiments 4 and 6) and by other researchers (captive experiments 1, 2, 3, and 5). In field experiment 1 and 2, I used acoustic-based bat detectors to measure bat visits and nearby bat activity at paired treated and untreated artificial roosts for one-week deployments at 16 sites in Panama (13 weeks) targeting velvety free-tailed bats (Molossus molossus) and at 7 sites in Ohio (17 weeks) targeting big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Only one visit was detected, and the activity did not show an effect of the treatment. In the captive experiments, I tested vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) using paired roost tubes (n=5 bats), using surfaces with different improved test procedures (n=20, n=22, n=33), and using a y-maze that compared their scent response to that of sound cues or the combination of sound and scent cues. I also tested captive velvety free-tailed bats instead (n=18). The overall effect size of scent cues on roost selection by captive bats was near zero. Ultimately, this indicates that guano and urine are not a strong enough lure to consistently draw bats into a roosting area. 2020-09-29 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586437502549126 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586437502549126 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic Biology
Behavioral Sciences
Ecology
bats
multimodal
replication
roosting ecology
sensory ecology
spellingShingle Biology
Behavioral Sciences
Ecology
bats
multimodal
replication
roosting ecology
sensory ecology
Brown, Bridget Kay Gladden
Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts?
author Brown, Bridget Kay Gladden
author_facet Brown, Bridget Kay Gladden
author_sort Brown, Bridget Kay Gladden
title Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts?
title_short Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts?
title_full Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts?
title_fullStr Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts?
title_full_unstemmed Do Bats use Olfactory Cues to Find Roosts?
title_sort do bats use olfactory cues to find roosts?
publisher The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate 2020
url http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586437502549126
work_keys_str_mv AT brownbridgetkaygladden dobatsuseolfactorycuestofindroosts
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