Movement seasonality in a desert-dwelling bat revealed by miniature GPS loggers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Bats are among the most successful desert mammals. Yet, our understanding of their spatio-temporal dynamics in habitat use associated with the seasonal oscillation of resources is still limited. In this study, we have employed state-of-the-art lightweight GPS loggers to track the yellow-winged bat Lavia frons in a desert in northern Kenya to investigate how seasonality in a desert affects the a) spatial and b) temporal dimensions of movements in a low-mobility bat.

Methods

Bats were tracked during April-May 2017 (rainy season) and January-February 2018 (dry season) using 1-g GPS loggers. Spatial and temporal dimensions of movements were quantified, respectively, as the home range and nightly activity patterns. We tested for differences between seasons to as

SUBMITTER: Conenna I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6696681 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature