I assisted a new graduate student in the Stoner Lab, Mallory Davies, with a poster for The Wildlife Society's (TWS) 2020 virtual meeting this year. Our poster on "Bats and Hummingbird Feeders: Simulating Different Monitoring Techniques to Examine Utilization of Introduced Alternative Food Sources by Long-Nosed Bats" can be found in the "Biological Diversity and Endangered Species Conservation" session and will be available on-demand on the meeting's website/program for several weeks beginning on Monday, September 28th. Mallory will be fielding questions on Tuesday, September 29th from 12:00-12:30 PM and 4:00-4:30 PM Eastern Time in the TWS conference portal.
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I recorded a talk for this year's virtual North American Congress for Conservation Biology (NACCB) meeting entitled "Does conserving desert elephants conserve bats?" as part of the "Human-Wildlife Conflict" session. My presentation is available on-demand on the meeting's website/program for several weeks. A live Q&A session will occur on Tuesday, July 28th from 1:00-1:30pm Mountain Time on the meeting's website although questions/comments can be posted on the discussion board or emailed to me at any time. The NACCB 2020 program can be found here.
New paper out: "Do bats seek clean water? A perspective on biodiversity from the Namib Desert"7/3/2020 "Do bats seek clean water? A perspective on biodiversity from the Namib Desert" was published today in Biological Conservation coauthored by Joel Berger. This piece compares the roles of water availability and quality in determining bat activity and species richness in the northern Namib Desert, Namibia. Sampling was conducted during the dry and wet seasons and at both artificial pools and natural springs. Feel free to email me if you need assistance accessing the paper. Abstract: Water abundance, distribution, and quality are key elements affecting species distributions in arid environments, yet how their interactions structure specific animal communities is often unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we examined relationships between bodies of water and bat communities in the northern Namib Desert. We predicted that water quality would be poorer (i.e., higher indices of electrical conductivity and ion concentrations) during the dry season and at artificial pools, and that bat species richness and activity would consequently be lower at these sites. We conducted extensive fieldwork at the terminus of the hot, dry season from November 2016 to January 2017 and at the conclusion of the following wet season from March to May 2017, collecting water samples and acoustic recordings of bat activity at both natural springs (n = 18) and artificial pools (n = 5). Overall activity (but not species richness) was greater during the wet season and at artificial pools, but we did not find systematic differences in water quality driven by seasonality or water body type. Although individual artificial pools harbored significantly greater bat activity, >35% of the species that we recorded were present only at natural springs. While bat species richness was reduced at saline sites, only the activity of the Zulu serotine also related to water quality. In general, water surface area was more often associated with bat activity in the Namib Desert than was water quality.
"The first finding of parasitic mite, Parasteatonyssus nyctinomi (Mesostigmata: Gamasina: Macronyssidae), in Namibia" was published today in the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association, which I coauthored with Maria Orlova, Will Reeves, Elena Gratton, and Mallory Davies. This piece highlights a range expansion for this bat ectoparasite. Feel free to email me if you need assistance accessing the paper. Abstract: Sixty-four individuals of a macronyssid mite, Parasteatonyssus nyctinomi (Zumpt, Patterson 1951), were identified from Egyptian free-tailed bats Tadarida aegyptiaca (É. Geoffroy 1818) (Chiroptera: Molossidae) captured in the Kunene region of Namibia (southern Africa). This is the first report on P. nyctinomi in the country.
"The first record of the spinturnicid mite Spinturnix kolenatii Oudemans, 1910 (Mesostigmata: Gamasina: Spinturnicidae) from the long-tailed serotine bat Eptesicus hottentotus A. Smith, 1833 (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in Africa" was published today in International Journal of Acarology, which I coauthored with Maria Orlova, Will Reeves, Elena Gratton, and Mallory Davies. This piece highlights a significant range expansion and new host record for this bat ectoparasite. Feel free to email me if you need assistance accessing the paper. Abstract: Three individuals of a spinturnicid mite resembling, Spinturnix kolenatii, are reported from the long-tailed serotine bat, Eptesicus hottentotus A. Smith, 1833 (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae), caught in the Kunene Region of Namibia (Southern Africa). This is the first report of S. kolenatii in Africa, significantly expanding the geographical distribution range of this ectoparasite.
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