A lunar phobia is a behavioral trait in which the individual alters or ceases its nocturnal activity during periods of strong lunar illumination found throughout the animal kingdom. Current evidence indicates the changes reflect predator/prey detectability due to increased visibility. The study hypothesizes whether bat activity is more negatively influenced by a discrete threshold of high lunar illumination (nights with ≥ 90% of moon exposure) rather than a continuous linear response to variation in moon exposure. A 1202 mist net bat captures dataset from a preserved area in Northeast Brazil was used to test this hypothesis. A stepwise model was built, using Bayesian information criterion, to determine the effect of lunar luminosity (either as continuous moon exposure or discrete threshold parameter), environment (open vegetation vs canopy-covered), and season (dry/wet). The final model selected showed a significant negative threshold effect of nights above 90% of moon luminosity compared to a weaker non-significant effect of continuous moon exposure variation. The selected model also found a positive effect of forested environments and the wet season in the total number of bat captures. The model was able to detect a significant decrease in captures for the most abundant species, Artibeus planirostris. Our findings support the hypothesis that bats (especially frugivorous) present lunar phobia, which respond in a negative nonlinear fashion to high luminosity, possibly to avoid predation.

中文翻译：

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蝙蝠像昏暗的灯光：月球恐惧症是新热带蝙蝠的光度阈值现象（哺乳动物：Chiroptera）

月球恐惧症是一种行为特征，其中个体在整个动物界发现的强烈月球照明期间会改变或停止其夜间活动。当前证据表明，这种变化反映了由于可见度增加而导致的天敌/猎物可探测性。这项研究假设蝙蝠的活动是否受到离散的高月球照明阈值（月曝光量≥90％的夜晚）的负面影响，而不是受到对月球曝光量变化的连续线性响应的负面影响。使用1202雾网蝙蝠从巴西东北部保护区捕获的数据集来检验该假设。使用贝叶斯信息准则建立了逐步模型，以确定月球光度的影响（作为连续的月球暴露或离散的阈值参数），环境（开放植被vs覆盖有树冠）和季节（干/湿）。所选的最终模型显示出月球亮度超过90％的夜晚具有显着的负阈值作用，而连续月球暴露变化的影响则较弱。所选模型还发现森林环境和雨季对蝙蝠捕获总数的积极影响。该模型能够检测出最丰富物种的捕获量显着下降，青蒿。我们的发现支持以下假设：蝙蝠（特别是节食的）存在月球恐惧症，对高亮度以负非线性方式做出反应，可能避免捕食。