Meeting Abstract

P2.9  Sunday, Jan. 5 15:30  Foraging Ecology of Bats in Developed and Forested Areas in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China SPRINGTHORPE, S.K.*; STONE, W.E.; Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, Huntsville sarah.springthorpe@salem.edu

Bats play key roles in many ecosystems, but the rapid urbanization that is occurring in China may have detrimental effects on their species composition and foraging activity. To determine if there has been an impact, this study was conducted to examine what the bat species are eating in Nanjing and if there is a difference in their diets and the foraging activity in developed and forested habitats. Bat foraging activity was assessed at 9 sites on 13 nights by measuring the number of echolocation calls with an Anabat II bat detector per one minute intervals every five minutes for an hour. Nine bats were captured using mist nets while recording calls at these same sites. Guano was collected from these bats and analyzed for diet composition using a nine point grid overlay on eleven magnified photos of the guano for each bat. Three species were caught: three Pipistrellus abramus, which had a generalist foraging strategy, five Eptesicus serotinus, which consumed 64% Coleoptera, and one Rhinolophus pearsonii, which consumed 68% Lepidoptera. The results of a t-test revealed that bat foraging activity was significantly higher in developed sites(n=7) than in forested sites (n=6, p=0.02). Results reveal that there were no significant differences between the diets of P. abramus in forested habitats (n=1) and developed habitats (n=2, p>0.05). Evidence of ground gleaning on a springtail was found in one P. abramus. Future work needs to examine the foraging strategies of the P. abramus and to focus on obtaining a larger sample size.