Colony Dynamics Of Bat Species (Chiroptera) In Chréa National Park (Algeria)

Abstract

Bats are considered excellent indicator taxa of habitat quality because their populations are very sensitive to human alteration. The loss or human disturbance in the bat natural roosts causes man-made structures to become important alternative refuges by a great diversity of bat species. In the Chréa National Park in Algeria we studied the bat community in different human infrastructures throughout the N1 road from Chiffa to Medea. Count of bat colonies were carried out monthly from 2008 to 2017 in the most important roosts to known of bat dynamics population and their roost selection. Records of ultrasonic sounds and acoustic data analysis were also used to assess the presence of another non cave-dwelling bat species. We identified 10 bat species and we detected 7 principal refuges, which harbored plurispecific bat colonies. Six bat species, which are considered cave-dwelling bats in almost certain period of their biological cycle, they were exclusively linked to the human infrastructures such as tunnels or mines. Furthermore, the other bat species such as Hypsugo savii and Tadarida teniotis were also captured in tunnels, indicating that these bat species could use also these structures. Our study shows that human infrastructures were used as alternative natural roosts by most bat species, especially cave-dwelling bat species. Therefore, we strongly suggest that the human infrastructures should be considered protected refuges in National Park.