The hunt for maternity colonies : a pilot study of using radio telemetry to track bats in southeast Norway

Abstract

There is still a gap of knowledge regarding bats in Norway. More studies are needed to explore which habitats are important for the maternity colonies, and which methods are most suited to find them. This is especially important in the most densely populated area of Norway: the south east. Increased human encroachment and land use change may affect bat in a manner of ways, from putting them under intense pressure, to providing new colony sites. The goal of the study was to find maternity colonies of five common Norwegian bat species (order: Chiroptera) in rural and forested areas close to Oslo. Furthermore, we wanted to investigate the numbers of individuals at each colony, their spatial movements upon leaving the colony in the evening, how they moved in the landscape to their foraging ground(s) and lastly, we wanted to see to what extent terrain obstructions and distance influenced the signals we picked up from radio-tagged bats.