the secrets of underground medicine 510 pages

We consider those factors which make caves important for bats and whether bats select caves with particular features.

We aim to review the importance of such sites for the maintenance of bat biodiversity. The threats to such roosts and the bats they shelter also have much in common and for that reason this chapter will consider all such roost types, which will often be referred to collectively as caves. Although the term ‘cave-dependent’ is often applied to bats, and will be used in this review, it is recognized that while their need for day roosts is incontrovertible, dependency is difficult to establish. However, caves in other rock formations, as well as mines, wartime fortifications and other underground situations, are also used by roosting bats, because all provide a relatively cool and constant environment compared to that outside. The most widely used day roosts occur in caves and because of the global abundance of surface carbonate rock (Fig. More caves of outstanding importance for bats at national and international levels also require protection.īats fly mainly at night and spend the day in roosts which provide shelter from extremes of temperature, other climatic variables and predators. Research on sustainable harvesting of bats as bushmeat and their responses to different types of human disturbance at caves and loss of surrounding foraging habitats is required. The main conservation response to threats to cave bats in these continents has been gating, but this remains relatively untested as a means of protecting colonies in other regions. Apparent declines of cave bats in Europe and North America also pose serious concerns, as do global climate change predictions. Growth in limestone quarrying and cave tourism industries worldwide severely threatens cave-dwelling bats, in addition to loss of foraging habitat, hunting for bushmeat, incidental disturbance and disruptive guano harvesting. Thermal preferences have been established for some cave-dwelling species as well as their vulnerability to disturbance, particularly during hibernation and reproduction. Given their importance for bats, relatively few studies have investigated factors involved in cave selection, although current evidence suggests that the density and size of caves are the best predictors of species diversity and population sizes. Due to the solubility of the substrate, the highest densities of caves occur in karst landscapes. In the temperate zone, caves provide roosts for hibernation and for some species, breeding in summer, whereas in warmer regions, they support high species richness year round and enormous colonies that maintain substantial ecosystem services. Caves and other subterranean sites such as mines are critical to the survival of hundreds of bat species worldwide, since they often provide shelter for most of a nation’s bat fauna.

The secrets of underground medicine 510 pages