Search

Simple Summary: Bats represent a diverse and ecologically significant mammalian group characterized by different feeding habits. Despite the gut microbiota influence on feeding habits, microbiome studies are scarce in South American bats, in a region considered a hot spot for bat biodiversity. Our study in Southern Brazil compared the gut microbiota of four bat species with different diets: nectarivorous, frugivorous, insectivorous, and hematophagous. We found that each species had unique gut microbiotas linked to their dietary habits, impacting their metabolic potentials. The presence of potentially harmful bacteria varied with feeding habits, suggesting a correlation between diet and microbial pathogens in bats. These insights emphasize the importance of preserving diverse habitats and food sources to support the conservation of bats and their ecosystems. Bats are a diverse and ecologically important group of mammals that exhibit remarkable diversity in their feeding habits. These diverse feeding habits are thought to be reflected in the composition and function of their gut microbiota, which plays important roles in nutrient acquisition, immune function, and overall health. Despite the rich biodiversity of bat species in South America, there is a lack of microbiome studies focusing on bats from this region. Such studies could offer major insights into conservation efforts and the preservation of biodiversity in South America. In this work, we aimed to compare the gut microbiota of four bat species with different feeding habits from Southern Brazil, including nectarivorous, frugivorous, insectivorous, and hematophagous bats. Our findings demonstrate that feeding habits can have a significant impact on the diversity and composition of bat gut microbiotas, with each species exhibiting unique metabolic potentials related to their dietary niches. In addition, the identification of potentially pathogenic bacteria suggests that the carriage of microbial pathogens by bats may vary, depending on feeding habits and host-specific factors. These findings provide novel insights into the relationship between bat feeding habits and gut microbiota composition, highlighting the need to promote diverse habitats and food sources to support these ecologically important species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Carajás region is home to the largest number of iron caves in Brazil, but studies that integrate elements of biological diversity and landscape characteristics are scarce. We present the first study based on the bat cave vulnerability index (BCVI), which uses bats as a key species for prioritizing caves in South America, whose objective was to assess the biotic potential and vulnerability of caves in the Carajás region, determining priority sites and the most effective conservation actions. The study took place from August 2021 to March 2023, where an inventory of the chiropterofauna of 12 caves was carried out. We recorded 16 bat species, two of which are vulnerable to extinction – Furipterus horrens (Cuvier, 1828) and Natalus macrourus (Gervais, 1856) – and two endemics to the Amazon region – Hsunycteris aff. thomasi (Allen, 1904) and Phyllostomus latifolius (Thomas, 1901); as well as one species with insufficient data to delimit its endemicity or threat status (Lonchophyllinae sp.). Mining is the main anthropogenic activity in the region, but tourism is also present and acts as a potential source of disturbance to the caves. The BCVI revealed three high priority caves for conservation and four with medium priority, indicating that these habitats are vulnerable to species loss and population decline due to exposure to anthropogenic activities and habitat destruction, thus requiring more effective conservation strategies. Considering the uniqueness of the subterranean habitats, we recommend re‐evaluating the proposals for expanding mining activities, implementing controlled tourist visitation plans and conducting ecological studies and long‐term monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat loss, fragmentation, and land conversion for human use are currently the main drivers of biodiversity loss in the Neotropics. Agropastoral and silvicultural activities are especially important, as they have expanded in the last decades due to the increasing demand for global food and wood production. This presents a challenge in developing management strategies that balance biodiversity conservation with productivity, which can only be achieved through a better understanding of biodiversity responses to landscape changes. In this study, we investigated how landscape changes affect the species richness, relative abundance, and species composition of a bat community in a fragmented landscape in southeastern Brazil, using an approach that integrates data from mist-nets and bioacoustics. Forest cover at intermediate and large scales was the best predictor of bat richness and relative abundance, as well as the relative abundance of frugivorous bats. For open and edge space aerial insectivorous bats, landscape variables did not have a strong explanatory power, suggesting that other variables may better predict their relative abundance. Our study highlights the importance of using multiple sampling methods to study Neotropical bats, as well as the importance of the multiscale approach to evaluate landscape effects on biological communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bats are highly mobile animals, moving rapidly over long distances. Detecting such movements is challenging, especially in cave areas, a commonly-used roost by bats. Brazil has a large number of caves and bat species, but details on bat mobility among caves is still poorly documented there. Such monitoring provides insights on the structuring and conservation of cave-dwelling communities, with possible legal implications for the environmental licensing in Brazil. Based on marking (2,490 bats captured; 2,142 marked) and recapture (35 events; 14 extra-site), here we present data on the mobility of mormoopid bats between two bat caves 15 km apart in northeastern Brazil. Sexual segregation between caves may explain mobility: one cave is likely a maternity roost; the other is a satellite cave used for copulae. Nomadic behavior due to seasonal distribution of resources in the semi-arid Northeastern Brazil cannot be ruled out. Based on the distance between the two caves, bats could potentially forage over an area of ~170,000 hectares, in a wider use of the landscape. Our data have implications for the conservation of bat species and their roosts, and contribute to a more evidence-based discussion of key concepts governing the environmental licensing of mining activities in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat disturbance affects, directly or indirectly, the predation risk and food available to animals. One group of animals that may be negatively affected by habitat disturbance are forest-dependent aerial insectivorous bats, especially in the Amazon rainforest, where forest clearance and degradation continue unabated. However, we still have a limited understanding of the mechanisms underlying the negative effect of habitat disturbance on forest aerial insectivorous bats. Evaluating the changes in prey-predator interaction in disturbed habitats can provide helpful information for protected area management. We evaluated how predation risk, insect biomass, and moonlight intensity affect bat activity levels in continuous primary and disturbed forests (fragments and secondary forest) at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil. We sampled bats using autonomous ultrasound recorders in continuous forest, forest fragments, and secondary forest. To assess insect biomass, we placed malaise traps close to the recorders and conducted a playback experiment consisting of owl calls to assess the influence of increased predation risk by natural predators on bat activity. We found that continuous forest had higher bat activity than fragments and secondary forest, probably reflecting higher insect biomass in continuous primary forest compared to secondary forest. Insect biomass was the best predictor of activity in disturbed habitats compared to predation risk and moonlight. Predation risk did not modulate bat activity in any habitat type. The effect of moonlight intensity on activity was only apparent in three species in different habitats. Our results suggest that these responses were related to the abundance of specific insect orders and not predation risk. Overall, our findings emphasize the importance of evaluating the effects of prey-predator interactions on the distribution of bats in disturbed tropical forests, as habitat disturbance can negatively affect lower trophic levels and consequently influence not only bats but other insect consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of natural areas for the advancement of economic activities such as agriculture, mining, livestock, and energy production are the main challenges for biodiversity conservation in Brazil. The establishment and expansion of protected areas (PA) are the cheapest way to ensure biodiversity protection and the maintenance of ecosystem services provided by it. Chiroptera is one of the most diverse group of mammals, responsible for several ecological functions such as seed dispersal, insect population control and pollination. The aim of our study was to estimate the degree of protection that PAs in Brazil guarantee for bats. Species distribution models were built to estimate the distribution of 173 bat species in the Brazilian territory. Then, we performed a gap analysis to assess the effectiveness of PAs in ensure protection for bats, regarding the administrative level and the type of PA. In general, federal PAs were more efficient in ensuring bat protection than state PAs. Strictly PAs alone are insufficient to protect 67.6% bats, including all endangered bats at national level. Sustainable use areas have a complementary role to achieve the established conservation goals, besides this is not its main purpose. However, more efforts are needed to ensure an effective representation of bat diversity in PAs. Our study shows the need for a more integrated systematic conservation planning that incorporates the federal and local levels. In addition, the inclusion of other types of areas such as indigenous lands and private areas could be effective strategies to ensure that protection goals are met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bat fatalities at wind facilities have been reported worldwide, and environmental impact assessments depend on searches for carcasses around wind turbines to quantify impacts. Some of the carcasses may go undetected by search teams or be removed by scavengers during search intervals, so these biases must be evaluated and taken into account in fatality estimation. We investigated the influence of different factors on searcher efficiency and scavenger removal in a dry forest area in northeastern Brazil, one of the regions with the highest density of wind turbines in the Neotropics. We conducted searcher efficiency and scavenger removal trials around 34 wind turbines from January 2017 to January 2018. Searcher efficiency was influenced by cover type, season, and carcass size, ranging between 12% for small bats in shrub vegetation during the rainy season and 96% for large bats in absent or sparse vegetation during the dry season. Carcass type and season affected scavenger removal; carcass persistence time was shorter for chicks (1.2 days) than for bats and mice (2.1 days), and the probability of a carcass persisting for a whole day was higher in the rainy season, while the probability of carcass persistence for 7, 14, and 28 days was higher in the dry season. The scavenger community was composed of canids, birds of prey, and insects, with systematic removal of carcasses by the crab‐eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) throughout the year and by dung beetles in the rainy season. Based on our findings, impact assessments of wind facilities on bats should conduct searcher efficiency trials in all seasons and cover types around wind turbines, using bat carcasses or models of different sizes. Scavenger removal trials should cover all seasons as well, and use mouse carcasses (but not chick carcasses) as surrogates for bats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bats are one of the most species‐rich mammal groups in the Tropics. This highly radiated group embodies many distinct ecomorphological traits, prompting their functional diversity. Furthermore, bat assemblages typically have high beta‐diversity due to distinctive compositions across geographic gradients.We aimed to understand the distribution of multifaceted bat diversity metrics (i.e. species richness, functional richness, Rao's quadratic entropy, and local contribution to beta‐diversity) as a function of land‐cover variables, environmental productivity and complexity, and anthropogenic features in the largest Tropical country worldwide: Brazil.We gathered data on bat distribution based on empirical published datasets and embodied the assemblages at the metacommunity scale, based on 10‐km radial clusters. We obtained spatial data on land cover, gross primary production, vegetation height, and human population density for the same radial clusters. We analysed the data via diversity metrics, descriptive statistics, and generalised additive models.Our results showed that two main metaregions (central‐western Amazon and the Atlantic coast) embrace the largest richness of bat species. The major positive predictor of bat diversity metrics was vegetation height. Bat diversity metrics throughout Brazil were also significantly influenced by agriculture (negatively) and urban cover (partially positively).We can conclude that bat diversity is more predictable from vegetation height and landscape features – especially agriculture and urban cover – at the metacommunity scale, whereas functional and local contributions to beta‐diversity metrics are more predictable from spatial autocorrelations, with some biome‐induced constrained effects. For the conservation of Brazilian bats and the many ecosystem services they provide, it is absolutely essential to prevent the further collapse of Brazilian biomes that is currently ongoing and fuelled by landscape changes, expansion of agribusiness frontiers, deforestation, and fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bat ectoparasitic flies are hematophagous insects highly specialized to parasitize only bats. Knowledge about how biotic and abiotic factors can influence ecological relationships between parasites and hosts is in general incipient. Large information gaps are even worst in biodiversity-rich, but poorly sampled areas like Brazil's Caatinga, the largest tropical dry forest in South America. We used bats and their highly specialized ectoparasitic flies as a study model to clarify some aspects of this host-parasite system in this semiarid environment. We conducted fieldwork at 55 sites in the Caatinga, between April 2017 and March 2020 and collected 1300 flies (19 species) on 333 bats (15 species). Bat ectoparasitic flies were highly host-specific, had an aggregated distribution, frequently formed infracommunities with only one species, and had a male-biased sex ratio. Except for the prevalence of the streblid fly Strebla guajiro on Carollia perspicillata, which was significantly higher in the rainy season, bat flies showed no preference — expressed by frequency and intensity of infestation — for host sex, and their interspecific relationships were not mediated by rainfall. Other variables that could potentially be interfering in this host-parasite relationship deserve further attention, especially in environments such as the Caatinga where there is great seasonal variation. Furthermore, the existence of species-specific responses must be taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Biology is the property of Instituto Internacional de Ecologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban development remodels the natural landscape and reconfigures local faunal communities. This study investigated for the first time the composition of bats in the city of Palmas, a rapidly growing urban centre in the state of Tocantins, Brazil. We recorded twenty‐three species of bats, most of them frugivorous, and we try to launch light on a large colony of urban insectivorous bats. This bat colony contained an estimated one million broad‐eared bats (Nyctinomops laticaudatus), and resided under the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Bridge of Friendship and National Integration, over the Tocantins River, between April and the beginning of October. This site has been certified as a Site of Special Importance for Bat Conservation by the Latin American and Caribbean Bat Conservation Network. The protection of the city's bats in general, and the bridge colony, in particular, will depend on efforts to raise the awareness of state and municipal authorities, programmes of environmental education and even the exploitation of the potential for local tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caves are among the most used and important roosts for hundreds of bat species worldwide. However, caves remain some of the least known and most threatened environments globally. Documenting the richness of bat species in caves is important not only to draw attention to the uniqueness and relevance of these roosts, but it also contributes to the identification of priority sites for the conservation of bats and the cave fauna dependent upon them. Here, we assessed and described an exceptionally high bat richness in a group of caves in southeastern Tocantins, central Brazil. Inventories carried out in 19 caves resulted in seven families and 31 bat species, of which three were new regional records. Twelve caves were used by threatened and endangered bat species, eight had high diversity indices, and seven caves had high species richness, including one cave that may hold a world record with 26 bat species found inside. The variation in beta diversity is mainly due to species turnover, which indicates that protecting the largest possible number of caves would be ideal for the most efficient conservation of local bat assemblages. The sampled region stands out for its high potential for the conservation of endangered species, and we strongly recommend the full protection of 15 caves classified as a priority for conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cave temperature is a limiting factor for several bat species. • Environmental stability, humidity, and cave structure influence species occurrence. • Larger – but more stable – microhabitat-rich caves harbor more species. • Landscape context did not affect species richness and composition. • Vegetation cover around caves is important for some species. Bats frequently use caves as roosts due to higher environmental stability and protection. However, species-specific ecological and physiological requirements and conditions of roosts and their surroundings can influence species presence. Little is known on cave choice by bats in the Neotropics, a species- and cave-rich region. Understanding how bats, cave characteristics and the surrounding landscape are related with each other helps the management and conservation of bats and caves. Based on sampling 19 caves using both diurnal observations and captures, we tested (1) whether bat richness was positively related to cave temperature, humidity, size, stability, and heterogeneity of microhabitats, and the preservation and heterogeneity of the surrounding landscape in central Brazil; (2) whether cave and landscape characteristics influenced on species composition; (3) how species responded to cave and landscape variables; and (4) whether these relationships changed between seasons. Temperature was a limiting factor, whereas environmental stability, humidity, and structural attributes of caves favored the occurrence of more species. Larger caves, rich in microhabitats – but more stable than the external environment – supported more species, especially in the dry season. Landscape context did not influence species richness and composition in the caves, but the percentage of vegetation around caves was important for certain species. Our results highlight the influence of environmental variables in the process of cave selection by Neotropical bat species. Moreover, we emphasize the importance of cave protection for bats and provide useful information for decision-making in processes of environmental licensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caves are very important roosts for bats. Neotropical countries, like Brazil, harbor both high bat species richness and abundance of underground cavities. The Caatinga drylands in northeastern Brazil are a good example with potentially 100 bat species and a high number of caves. Among those caves, some harbor exceptionally large bat populations, but, even thus, they still remain poorly known and studied. Here we present a 48-months monitoring based on a non-invasive thermal detection system to estimate the abundance changes of a large colony in a bat cave in the Caatinga drylands of Brazil. That cave harbors ten bat species — two nationally endangered — and 70% of them are main cave users. We found a marked inter-month fluctuation in the total bat abundance, with no consistent pattern. Total bat abundance was neither related to precipitation nor to the reproductive seasonality. During certain moments, the bat population can reach up to 120,000 individuals, making this cave a priority site for bat conservation in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Genus Lonchophylla Thomas 1903 comprises small bats classified into 12 species distributed along the Neotropical Region with feeding habits associated with pollination of several species. Here we present data on new locations of occurrence of recently described Lonchophylla inexpectata Moratelli & Dias 2015, as well as unprecedented information on associated parasites and feeding habits of the species. Fieldwork was conducted in the years 2000, 2012 and 2013 in a Caatinga area in the State of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. Five Lonchophylla specimens were collected, and after reconsidering taxonomy, these were assigned to L. inexpectata, resulting in a new locality for the known species distribution. Some of the ecological interactions of L. inexpectata with parasites were investigated, as well as the dietary items consumed. Our findings show parasitization of Streblidae (Hexapoda, Diptera) ectoparasites and Capillariidae (Nematoda) endoparasites, and the feeding on nectar of Bauhinia ungulata L. (Fabaceae) and consumption of lepidopterans (Hexapoda, Lepidoptera). Considering that approximately half of the Caatinga native vegetation had been cleared so far, results here presented reinforce the importance of this region for the conservation of bats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical dry forests (TDF) are threatened worldwide, affected by conversion to agriculture, fragmentation, fires, and climate change. Most of the remaining TDF are in South America, including Brazil's Caatinga. Understanding how the biota of TDFs responds to habitat loss and climate change is a scientific challenge, especially to diversified groups, such as bats, whose richness and ecological roles in TDF are usually underestimated. We updated and synthesized occurrence data and generated distribution models for Caatinga bats considering present and future scenarios. At least 96 species, 48 genera, and eight families were recorded, including two endemic species; five additional species may occur in the biome. The highest potential species richness occurs in the east, in the Caatinga/Atlantic Forest ecotone; the lowest in the west, in the Caatinga/Cerrado ecotone. Current and projected deforestation led to a reduction of 65% in areas with very high potential richness, and only 0.4% will remain within current protected areas. In a business as usual scenario (i.e., high and fast habitat loss + low in situ protection + high potential exposure to climate change) the bat fauna of the Caatinga will be negatively impacted. Improving the conservation of roosting and foraging sites, with the expansion and/or creation of protected areas is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we describe the distribution pattern of bat species and select priority areas for the conservation of the Cerrado based on a systematic planning approach. We estimated species richness and calculated the total beta diversity based on Sørensen’s dissimilarity index (βsor). We estimated the species turnover using Simpson’s dissimilarity index (βsim). We then evaluated the nesting (βsne) by the difference between the dissimilarity indices (βsor and βsim). Based on this analysis, we identified the priority areas for the conservation of bats in the Cerrado based on the zonation approach. We found that the species richness and beta diversity of bats in the Cerrado are concentrated primarily in the central and northern portions of the biome. We also discovered that the conservation units of the Cerrado are ineffective for the protection of species with a restricted distribution (≤ 150 grid cells), such as Vampyrum spectrum, for which we propose the creation of new conservation units that better cover the diversity patterns observed in the present study. By conserving this diversity, we will also be protecting local habitats, which will in turn enable the survival of a wide range of species, and provide the ecosystems with the capacity to respond adequately to future changes in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, increasing human activity, such as agriculture and mining, and decreased landscape complexity, are negatively affecting numerous mammal species. For example, bat communities are becoming threatened in many locations mostly due to the loss of their preferred roosting and foraging habitats. Brazilian landscapes and their associated bat communities are no exception, with the situation being further exacerbated by recently adopted permissive environmental laws that have resulted in reduced biodiversity protection and conservation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand how landscape and environmental variables relate to bat activities in Brazil in order to support efforts for their conservation. We used acoustic monitoring data to investigate differences in foraging and social activity of insectivorous bats among four habitat types in a heterogeneous landscape in the Cerrado-Atlantic forest ecotone in southeastern Brazil. We also sampled insect availability and measured temperature at the same sites. Our results showed increased social activity and a greater number of species emitting social calls in karst, and increased feeding activity with a greater number of species emitting feeding buzzes in gallery forest. We also found a positive influence of both temperature and insect abundance on foraging and social activity. Our study provides new insights regarding habitat use by bats in a heterogeneous landscape, and demonstrates the importance of preserving different habitats in heterogeneous landscapes for the conservation of bat species and the ecological functions they perform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Neotropical Biology & Conservation is the property of Pensoft Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Neotropical Biology & Conservation is the property of Pensoft Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Biology is the property of Instituto Internacional de Ecologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Biociencias is the property of Revista Brasileira de Biociencias and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Timber harvest is one of the main causes of degradation of Amazonian tropical forests, where bats represent important components of biodiversity. In addition, bats may represent keystone taxa in the Neotropics, as they are primary agents of pollination and seed dispersal for many pioneer plants. We assessed the impact of low harvest (18m3/ha), reduced impact logging (RIL) on population and community characteristics of phyllostomid bats in Amazonian terra firme forest of Brazil at 20–42 months post-harvest. Based on 103,680 net-meter-hours of netting in Tapajós National Forest, 2341 phyllostomids were captured, representing 42 species, 25 genera, and 4 broad feeding guilds. Population-level responses of common phyllostomids to RIL were minor, with 10 of 15 species evincing no change in mean abundance. Of those taxa responding to RIL (mean difference in number of individuals per site), three increased (Artibeus concolor [0.46 individuals], Artibeus lituratus [3.88], and Glossophaga soricina [0.71]) and two decreased (Carollia brevicauda [0.96] and Carollia perspicillata [14.04]) in abundance. Compositional (species distributions) and structural (rank distributions) aspects of bat assemblages differed between cut and control forests. More specifically, bat assemblages in cut forest had increased diversity and decreased dominance compared to control forest. Nonetheless, the proportional abundance of the five most common species, as a group, was similar in cut (86%) and control forest (88%), and frugivores dominated assemblages in both management types. Mean abundance of frugivores decreased (10.59 individuals per site) in response to RIL; however, this response was driven by decreases in C. perspicillata, the most abundant species in terra firme forest. Although RIL had only minor effects on biodiversity in the short-term, extrapolation to a long-term prospectus should be exercised with caution when applied to conservation or policy issues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Nearly 40% of the remaining Atlantic Forest in southern Bahia state, Brazil, is a rustic agroforest of cacao (Theobroma cacao). These traditional shade plantations, locally known as 'cabrucas', are habitats for forest dwelling species. Here we investigated the potential role of this traditional crop as a support for bat assemblages in southern Bahia, establishing the extent to which the bat community structure found in this agricultural system is influenced by the proximity of forest tracts. We compared the bat community attributes (richness, diversity and dominance) and species-level response (capture frequency) between native forest tracts and shade cacao plantations located in two distinct landscapes, which varied in total amount of forest (patch sizes and total forested area) and in their proximity to forest tracts. The cabrucas contiguous to forest tracts showed a rich and abundant bat community, with samples showing capture rates, species richness, diversity and evenness significantly higher than those reported for forest tracts. This situation changes, however, when shade plantations are located at some distance from forest tracts (>1000 m). Bat communities in these isolated cabrucas are less diverse than those found in forests and nearby cabrucas, but in both cases, species usually associated with pristine habitats were found. These findings suggest that cabrucas per se are not forest surrogates, and their potential to harbor forest dwelling bat species is closely linked with the existence of nearby forest tracts that may act as a source for species populations. Therefore, the entire landscape should be considered for management, taking into account that maintenance of cabrucas together with the preservation and restoration of forest patches is probably direly needed if one wishes to conserve the bat diversity in southern Bahia for the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faunal mortality from roadkill has a negative impact on global biodiversity, and bats are among the roadkilled animals. In South America, the Atlantic Forest covers southeastern Brazil, a region which sustains a large bat diversity. In this biome, the Sooretama reserves are crossed by the federal highway BR-101, one of the busiest in Brazil. We analyzed bats roadkilled along the 25 km stretch of highway that crosses the Sooretama reserves. Data were collected between the years 2010 and 2015. In total, 773 individuals distributed among 47 bat species were roadkilled during this period. The insectivorous feeding guild was the most affected, accounting for 25 species and 74% of the recorded roadkill, and those flying in the open area were the most frequently roadkilled (41.9%). Bat mortality rates did not differ between months of the year. However, the relation between rainy days and roadkill was negative. Monitoring by foot was more efficient than by car for detection of bat carcasses. Radars with a speed limit below 60 km/h reduced the rates of roadkill. The diversity of deceased bats found in this study represents 40% of the known species in the Atlantic Forest, and is the largest among current studies of species killed on highways globally. The present study raises concerns about the high diversity and abundance of roadkilled insectivorous bats and the conservation of these animals in the Neotropical region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]