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Temples and bats in a homogeneous agriculture landscape: Importance of microhabitat availability, disturbance and land use for bat conservation

PloS one, 2022-07, Vol.17 (7), p.e0251771-e0251771 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

COPYRIGHT 2022 Public Library of Science ;2022 Ganesh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. ;2022 Ganesh et al 2022 Ganesh et al ;ISSN: 1932-6203 ;EISSN: 1932-6203 ;DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251771 ;PMID: 35830428

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Title:
Temples and bats in a homogeneous agriculture landscape: Importance of microhabitat availability, disturbance and land use for bat conservation
Author: Ganesh, T ; Saravanan, A ; Mathivanan, M
Davis, Mark A.
Subjects: Abundance ; Agricultural management ; Agriculture ; Anthropogenic factors ; Availability ; Bats ; Biology and Life Sciences ; Cavernicolous species ; Conservation ; COVID-19 ; Deities ; Earth Sciences ; Ecology and Environmental Sciences ; Engineering and Technology ; Evaluation ; Grasslands ; Habitats ; Hipposideros speoris ; Historical buildings ; India ; Land conservation ; Land use ; Logistics ; Management ; Megaderma lyra ; Methods ; Microenvironments ; Microhabitats ; Mosques & temples ; Pandemics ; Pipistrellus ; Population ; Protection and preservation ; Rhinopoma hardwickei ; River basins ; Rivers ; Roosts ; Rousettus leschenaultii ; Scrub ; Social Sciences ; Species richness ; Statistical models ; Tadarida aegyptiaca ; Taphozous melanopogon ; Temples ; Urban areas ; Walkways ; Water availability ; Wildlife conservation ; Wind
Is Part Of: PloS one, 2022-07, Vol.17 (7), p.e0251771-e0251771
Description: 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.
Publisher: San Francisco: Public Library of Science
Language: English
Identifier: ISSN: 1932-6203
EISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251771
PMID: 35830428
Source: Geneva Foundation Free Medical Journals at publisher websites
PubMed Central（OA）
Public Library of Science
Coronavirus Research Database
ProQuest Central
DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals

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Temples and bats in a homogeneous agriculture landscape: Importance of microhabitat availability, disturbance and land use for bat conservation

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