Bats keep separate households

Thursday, March 24, 2011 - 10:00 in Biology & Nature

(PhysOrg.com) -- The use of different resources by males and females exacerbates the estimation of population sizes. However, the monitoring of population sizes, particularly for rare and threatened species, is pivotal to quick and effective conservation action. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell investigated the ecological niches of male and female parti-coloured bats (Vespertilio murinus) and discovered that the sexes use entirely different foraging grounds. Their findings demonstrate that a finer grained view of what different demographic subsets of species do is essential for correct estimation of population trends with important implications on action plans for conservation.

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