Although it is well known that bats commonly forage in riparian areas, which provide water resources and insect concentrations, the role that the physical structure of riparian areas plays in influencing local bat communities is less certain. In 2000–2002, we used acoustic monitoring to determine bat species presence at 338 riparian sites in northwestern Georgia, USA. We used a 2-dimensional nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination to assess how separations among species were partially associated with riparian conditions. Our NMDS analysis found some degree of habitat partitioning among bat species occurring in northwestern Georgia and was dictated in part by riparian condition. Myotis grisescens and M. septentrionalis were associated with low-elevation lotic waterways, whereas M. lucifugus, Lasiurus borealis, and Eptesicus fuscus were associated with high-elevation lentic waterways with sparse canopy cover. However, riparian conditions had weak relations with NMDS axes, possibly resulting in coincidental associations in some cases. Regression tree analysis indicated that higher bat species richness was associated with apparently uncommon small, high-elevation waterways with sparse canopy cover as well as larger streams and rivers that had wetlands adjacent to them. Including high-elevation waterways with existing management recommendations for endangered M. grisescens foraging areas (large, low-elevation streams and rivers) will be the most effective conservation strategy to benefit the most bat species in northwestern Georgia and probably elsewhere in the southern Appalachians.
Bats appear regularly among the mammalian prey species of the barn owl. However, from numerous studies of owl pellets, bats are rarely represented in the prey of the barn owl and usually make up less than 1% of the prey individuals. Prey remains of the barn owl from the fortress Dömitz, south-east of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany) were collected and analysed. A total of 2931 identifiable fragments from at least 1100 vertebrate individuals were discovered and identified. The analysis of the pellets over a four year period shows that, aside from the typical spectrum of mammalian prey (voles 34.9%, shrews 24.6 % and mice 13.8%), a relatively large proportion of prey individuals (26.6 %) were bats. From the pellet sample from 2002, Natterer’s bat Myotis nattereri were clearly the dominant prey with 79 individuals (30.2 %) followed by the common vole Microtus arvalis with 74 individuals (28.2 %). This high frequency of bats from the 2002 sample led to a total percentage of bats of almost 39 % and bats were clearly dominant over other potential prey groups. The frequency of bats in all samples is much higher than in all other known studies of barn owl pellet samples in a comparable volume. Our results show that Tyto alba is an opportunistic but no selective hunter of bats.