Curiosity killed the bat: Domestic cats as bat predators (original) (raw)
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Guidelines for the Conservation of bats in buildings and the resolution of related conflicts
Institutions enforcing the laws and regulations protecting bats 4.2.3 Regulations concerning bat research and monitoring 5. ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED AND SPECIFIC PROCEDURES 5.1. People in charge of applying laws concerning wildlife 5.2. Local offices for the protection of cultural heritage (Soprintendenze) and other bodies with similar scopes 5.3. Construction professionals 5.3.1 Procedures for construction professionals, relevant administration services and owners 5.4. Local administration bodies and agencies responsible for construction and urban planning 5.5. Bodies involved in the management of road network infrastructures 5.5.1 State railways 5.5.2 Motorways 5.5.3 Anas Azienda Nazionale Autonoma delle Strade (autonomous national road company) 5.6. People involved for various reasons, or improperly 6 5.7. Vademecum on bat protection and roost management for wildlife management staff 5.7.1 Introduction 5.7.2 Vademecum 5.7.2.1. Law 5.7.2.2. Procedures 6. INTEGRATING SURVEYS IN BUILDINGS WITH GENERAL BAT MONITORING 6.1. Bat monitoring: an overview 6.2. Using data on bats in buildings for monitoring purposes 6.3. Roost surveys 6.4. Monitoring accidental captures or killing 7. ASSESSING IMPACTS ON BATS IN BUILDINGS AND DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES 8. OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE TO PROTECT BATS AND AVOID CONFLICT ARISING IN BUIDLINGS OR SITES MANAGED BY THE MINISTRY FOR THE CULTURAL HERITAGE AND ACTIVITIES 8.1. Background 8.2. Reporting on bat occurrence is mandatory 8.3. Bat protection and routine management of sites 8.4. Protecting bats when changes in the structure and/or use of sites are planned 8.5. Restoration, renovation, modification or use change potentially affecting the persistence of bats in buildings or sites where their presence is known 8.6. Protecting cultural heritage 8.7. Direct ministry action and other support for integrated protection of bats and the cultural heritage 9. CASE STUDIES 9.1. Aosta Cathedral 9.1.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.1.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.1.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.1.2 Threats 9.1.3 Actions 9.1.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions 9.2. Agliè Castle 9.2.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.2.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.2.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.2.2 Threats 9.2.3 Actions 9.2.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions 9.3. Villa de Angeli Frua 9.3.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.3.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.3.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.3.2 Threats 9.3.3 Actions 9.3.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions 9.4. Dock Tower in Lierna 9.4.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.4.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.4.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.4.2 Threats 9.4.3 Actions 9.4.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions 9.5. Nostra Signora della Montà Sanctuary 9.5.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.5.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.5.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.5.2 Threats 9.5.3 Actions 9.5.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions 9.6. San Gregorio Church 8 9.6.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.6.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.6.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.6.2 Threats 9.6.3 Actions 9.6.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions 9.7. Ex SMI Schools in Pistoia 9.7.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.7.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.7.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.7.2 Threats 9.7.3 Actions 9.7.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions 9.8. Buildings and Monuments of Villa Demidoff Park 9.8.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.8.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.8.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.8.2 Threats 9.8.3 Actions 9.8.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions 9.9. Alfieri Theatre 9.9.1 Characterization of site and bats 9.9.1.1. Historical and current occurrence of bats 9.9.1.2. Assessment of conservation value 9.9.2 Threats 9.9.3 Actions 9.9.3.1. Agreed or proposed actions
Zoonotic Risk: One More Good Reason Why Cats Should Be Kept Away from Bats
Pathogens, 2021
Bats are often unfairly depicted as the direct culprit in the current COVID-19 pandemic, yet the real causes of this and other zoonotic spillover events should be sought in the human impact on the environment, including the spread of domestic animals. Here, we discuss bat predation by cats as a phenomenon bringing about zoonotic risks and illustrate cases of observed, suspected or hypothesized pathogen transmission from bats to cats, certainly or likely following predation episodes. In addition to well-known cases of bat rabies, we review other diseases that affect humans and might eventually reach them through cats that prey on bats. We also examine the potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent of COVID-19, from domestic cats to bats, which, although unlikely, might generate a novel wildlife reservoir in these mammals, and identify research and management directions to achieve more effective risk assessment, mitigation or prevention. Overall, not only does bat killing by cats represent a potentially serious threat to biodiversity conservation, but it also bears zoonotic implications that can no longer be neglected.
2023
Climate change is exerting a broad range of (mostly adverse) effects on biodiversity, and more are expected under future scenarios. Impacts on species that deliver key ecosystem services, such as bats, are especially concerning, so their better understanding is key to preventing or mitigating them. Due to their physiological requirements, bats are especially sensitive to environmental temperatures and water availability, and heatwave-related mortality has been reported for flying foxes and, more anecdotally, other bat species. For temperate regions, to date, no study has highlighted an association between temperature extremes and bat mortality, mostly due to the difficulty of relying on data series covering long timespans. Heatwaves may affect bats, causing thermal shock and acute dehydration so bats can fall from the roost and, in some cases, are rescued by the public and brought to wildlife rehabilitation centres (WRCs). In our work, we considered a dataset spanning over 20 years of bat admittance to Italian WRCs, covering 5842 bats, and hypothesised that in summer, the number of admitted bats will increase in hotter weeks and young bats will be more exposed to heat stress than adults. We confirmed our first hypothesis for both the overall sample and three out of five synurbic species for which data were available, whereas hot weeks affected both young and adults, pointing to an especially concerning effect on bat survival and reproduction. Although our study is correlative, the existence of a causative relationship between high temperatures and grounded bats is still the best explanation for the recorded patterns. We urge such a relationship to be explored via extensive monitoring of urban bat roosts to inform appropriate management of bat communities in such environments and preserve the precious ecosystem services such mammals provide, especially insectivory services
Conflict can arise when bats roost in human dwellings and householders are affected adversely by their presence. In the United Kingdom, the exclusion of bats from roosts can be licensed under exceptional circumstances to alleviate conflict, but the fate of excluded bats and the impact on their survival and reproduction is not well understood. Using radiotracking, we investigated the effects of exclusion on the soprano pipistrelle Pipistrellus pygmaeus, a species that commonly roosts in buildings in Europe. Exclusions were performed under licence at five roosts in England in spring, when females were in the early stages of pregnancy. Following exclusion, all bats found alternative roosts and colonies congregated in nearby known roosts that had been used by radio-tagged bats prior to exclusion. We found no difference in roosting behaviour before and after exclusion. Both the frequency of roost switching and the type of roosts used by bats remained unchanged. We also found no change in foraging behaviour. Bats foraged in the same areas, travelled similar distances to reach foraging areas and showed similar patterns of habitat selection before and after exclusion. Population modelling suggested that any reduction in survival following exclusion could have a negative impact on population growth, whereas a reduction in productivity would have less effect. While the number of soprano pipistrelle exclusions currently licensed each year is likely to have little effect on local populations, the cumulative impacts of licensing the destruction of large numbers of roosts may be of concern.
Habitat Preferences of Bats in a Rural Area of Sicily Determined by Acoustic Surveys
Hystrix-italian Journal of Mammalogy, 2009
The bat fauna of a 60 km 2 wide area representing the typical rural landscape of inland Sicily and including the small "Rocche di Entella" karstic plateau (Natural Reserve and SAC) was surveyed between May 2006 and September 2007. Sampling was carried out at 95 sites, distributed proportionally in six main habitats. Bat calls were timeexpanded with a D980 bat detector and then identified to species level by a Discriminant Function Analysis. We recorded 305 bat passes and identified 96.4% of recorded calls. Moon phase, cloud cover and their interaction did not affect total bat activity, nor did the sampling period. Aquatic and riparian habitats were preferred, whilst Eucalyptus plantations and vineyards were avoided. At species level, all bats selected the former habitats, except H. savii, and avoided field crops, except Myotis sp. Thermo-Mediterranean shrub formations showed the highest species richness, whereas vineyards had the lowest. Our study emphasizes the value of riparian habitats and low-intensity farming for bat conservation.
PLOS global public health, 2022
Domestic animals can serve as consequential conveyors of zoonotic pathogens across wildlife-human interfaces. Still, there has been little study on how different domestic species and their behaviors influence the zoonotic risk to humans. In this study, we examined patterns of bat encounters with domestic animals that resulted in submission for testing at the rabies laboratories of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) during 2014-2020. Our goals were specifically to examine how the number of bats submitted and the number of rabies positive bats varied by the type of domestic animal exposure and whether domestic cats were indoor or free-roaming. The CFIA reported 6258 bat submissions for rabies testing, of which 41.5% and 8.7% had encounter histories with cats and dogs, respectively. A much smaller fraction of bat submissions (0.3%) had exposure to other domestic animals, and 49.5% had no domestic animal exposure. For the bat submissions related to cats, and where lifestyle was noted, 91.1% were associated with free-roaming cats and 8.9% with indoor cats. Model results indicated the probability of a rabies-positive bat was the highest with a history of dog association (20.2%), followed by bats with no animal exposure (16.7%), free-roaming cats (6.9%), cats with unspecified histories (6.0%) and the lowest probability associated with non-free-roaming (indoor) cats (3.8%). Although there was lower rabies prevalence in bats associated with cats compared to dogs, the 4.8 fold higher number of cat-bat interactions cumulatively leads to a greater overall rabies exposure risk to humans from any free-roaming outdoor cats. This study suggests that free-roaming owned cats may have an underappreciated role in cryptic rabies exposures in humans and as a significant predator of bats. Preventing free-roaming in cats is a cost-effective and underutilized public health recommendation for rabies prevention that also synergistically reduces the health PLOS GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH
Differential responses of cryptic bat species to the urban landscape
Ecology and Evolution, 2016
Barlow, who died shortly before the publication of this study. Kate's work in developing and running the National Bat Monitoring Programme was instrumental to our understanding of UK bat population trends and has influenced bat conservation projects around the world. She will be sorely missed.
Bats represent a major component of forest biodiversity. In forest, bats find many roosting and foraging opportunities. When foraging in forest, different bat species exploit a range of microhabitats according to their echolocation and flight style. When roosting, bats require sufficient numbers of suitable tree cavities. Overall, forest structure may influence both foraging and roosting behaviour, and in turn the number of bat species present and their population size. The exploitation of forests for commercial purposes may be a threat to biodiversity when logging leads to habitat loss, alteration or fragmentation. While some bat species may benefit from an increase in the amount of edge habitat determined by logging, others, more specialized to exploit forest interiors, may be potentially harmed. In this study we set out to assess the effect on foraging bats of different management approaches, comparing locally applied traditional approaches with innovative multifunctional management options and delayed logging. Within the framework of the LIFE+ ManFor C.BD. Project we surveyed the effects of thinning at four Italian forest sites, each representing a separate case study. We found that in logged plots bat activity either showed no difference from unlogged plots or resulted in an increase in foraging activity, suggesting that thinning, at least in the forest types we dealt with, has no adverse consequences on bat foraging. However, in our case the effects varied greatly across sites and were detected mostly when all bat species were pooled together for analysis. We conclude that forest exploitation may be sustainable and even favour foraging bats, but since our work neither covered direct mortality linked with forestry operations nor roost loss, further studies are needed to analyze these important aspects. We also highlight that total bat activity revealed by acoustic surveys carried out with automatic recorders may be used as an appropriate indicator of forestry effects on bats.