Species-specific responses to land-use change in island insectivorous bats

Due to their ability disperse over water, half of the extant bat species occur on islands and ca. 25% these are island endemics. They often sole native mammals play key roles in maintenance insular ecosystems. Yet, due increasing anthropogenic pressures, 60% island-restricted bats now threatened. The sub-tropical Madeira is home Macaronesian endemic Pipistrellus maderensis, Nyctalus leisleri verrucosus - an subspecies Plecotus austriacus. These each represent three main foraging guilds insectivorous namely, edge space foragers, open foragers narrow foragers. Despite great conservation value potential provide pest suppression services, little known about habitat associations bats. We used low-cost autonomous sensors conduct island-wide bioacoustic survey investigate how Madeiran affected by human-induced land-use change orography. Overall we obtained >63,000 passes across 216 sites at site, quantified cover altitude within a radius 250, 500 1000 m. maderensis was most widespread commonly recorded species, whereas austriacus had restricted distribution lowest number detected passes. found species-specific scale-dependent responses cover, with activity being positively associated landscape-scale shrubland, cropland Laurisilva (primary forest) were negatively influenced respectively. Furthermore, that negative effect This study provides first insights into effects type showcases detectors for surveys.