As a Master's student at the University of Missouri, I looked at bat occupancy in open savannas and woodlands versus more closed forests in the Missouri Ozarks.
Recent restoration using prescribed fire and thinning has created more savannas and woodlands in the Ozarks. These more open types of landscape used to be more common and were caused by lightning strikes and fires set by Native Americans. However, these fires were more often suppressed after Europeans settled the area.
I spent two summers setting up Anabat detectors on state and Forest Service land in the Ozark region of Missouri. Anabat detectors are a type of device that record the ultrasonic sounds that bats use for echolocation. Anabats specifically use a method called zero crossing to plot the bat call on a graph. Researchers can then download the data from an Anabat to a computer where the calls are analyzed. Generally, different species of bats will have different echolocation calls. I used this to determine what species were occupying savannas and woodlands or forests.
I looked at the occupancy of 5 different species in Missouri: northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis), big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis), and tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus).
Most species had high site occupancy across the gradient of savanna, woodland, and forest. I found that evening bats occurred more in areas that had lower densities of larger sized trees, suggesting that savannas and woodlands are probably more suitable for evening bats than more dense forests. Evening bats also had higher occupancy in areas that had higher frequencies of prescribed fire. Northern long-eared bats occurred most in areas that were considered more dense forests than managed savannas and woodlands. Eastern red bats, big brown bats, and tri-colored bats were not positively or negatively affected by the savanna/woodland restoration.
This work is published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin. See my publications.
Recent restoration using prescribed fire and thinning has created more savannas and woodlands in the Ozarks. These more open types of landscape used to be more common and were caused by lightning strikes and fires set by Native Americans. However, these fires were more often suppressed after Europeans settled the area.
I spent two summers setting up Anabat detectors on state and Forest Service land in the Ozark region of Missouri. Anabat detectors are a type of device that record the ultrasonic sounds that bats use for echolocation. Anabats specifically use a method called zero crossing to plot the bat call on a graph. Researchers can then download the data from an Anabat to a computer where the calls are analyzed. Generally, different species of bats will have different echolocation calls. I used this to determine what species were occupying savannas and woodlands or forests.
I looked at the occupancy of 5 different species in Missouri: northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis), big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis), and tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus).
Most species had high site occupancy across the gradient of savanna, woodland, and forest. I found that evening bats occurred more in areas that had lower densities of larger sized trees, suggesting that savannas and woodlands are probably more suitable for evening bats than more dense forests. Evening bats also had higher occupancy in areas that had higher frequencies of prescribed fire. Northern long-eared bats occurred most in areas that were considered more dense forests than managed savannas and woodlands. Eastern red bats, big brown bats, and tri-colored bats were not positively or negatively affected by the savanna/woodland restoration.
This work is published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin. See my publications.