The northern long‐eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is one of the bat species most affected by white‐nose syndrome. Population declines attributed to white‐nose syndrome contributed to the species’ listing as federally threatened under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Although one of the most abundant Myotine bats in eastern North America prior to white‐nose syndrome, little is known about northern long‐eared bats in the upper Midwest, USA. We assessed the habitat associations of the northern long‐eared bats on a regional scale using occupancy models that accounted for uncertainty in nightly detection to provide needed information on the distribution as white‐nose syndrome has recently arrived in this area. We monitored bat activity using zero‐crossing frequency‐division bat detectors for 10–15 nights at 20 detector sites at each of 3 sampling areas in Michigan, USA, and 6 sampling areas in Wisconsin, USA, stratified by mesic and xeric habitat types. We constructed northern long‐eared bat nightly detection histories for our occupancy analysis using maximum likelihood estimates from 2 commercially‐available automated identification programs: Kaleidoscope and Echoclass. We sampled for a total of 2,174 detector‐nights. Both Kaleidoscope and Echoclass identified northern long‐eared bat passes on 110 detector‐nights, whereas on 1,968 detector‐nights neither program identified a northern long‐eared bat call. Only one program or the other identified northern long‐eared bat calls on 206 detector‐nights, indicating an overall agreement rate of 35% on nights when calls were detected. We analyzed these data using an occupancy analysis accounting for the potential for false positives to assess the relationship between northern long‐eared bat presence and habitat characteristics. Our analyses indicated that the probability of a false positive at a site was low (0.015; 95% CI 0.009–0.021), and detection probability, but not occupancy, declined from 2015 to 2016 for sites in Wisconsin sampled in both years. Occupancy was positively associated with distance into the forest interior (distance from nearest road). © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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湖州地区北部长耳蝙蝠的占有率和可探测性

北部长耳蝠（Myotis septentrionalis）是最受白鼻综合症影响的蝙蝠物种之一。白鼻子综合症导致的种群减少导致该物种被列为1973年《濒危物种法》规定的联邦威胁。尽管白鼻综合症之前北美东部最丰富的Myotine蝙蝠之一，但对美国中西部上部的北长耳蝙蝠知之甚少。我们使用占位模型评估了北部长耳蝙蝠的栖息地关联，该模型解释了夜间检测的不确定性，以提供有关白鼻综合症最近到达该区域的分布所需的信息。我们在美国密歇根州的3个采样区域中的每个采样点使用20个探测器站点，使用零频分频蝙蝠探测器对蝙蝠活动进行了10-15晚的监控，和美国威斯康星州的6个采样区域，按中生和干生生境类型分层。我们使用来自2个商业上可用的自动识别程序（万花筒和Echoclass）的最大似然估计，构建了北部长耳蝙蝠夜间探测历史，以进行占用分析。我们总共采样了2,174个探测器夜。万花筒和Echoclass都在110个探测器之夜确定了北部长耳蝙蝠的传球，而在1,968个探测器之夜中，两个程序都没有发现北部长耳蝙蝠的鸣叫。只有一个程序或其他程序确定了206个探测器之夜的北方长耳蝙蝠呼叫，这表明在检测到呼叫时的夜晚，总体同意率为35％。我们使用占用分析法对这些数据进行了分析，考虑了误报的可能性，以评估北部长耳蝙蝠的存在与栖息地特征之间的关系。我们的分析表明，在这两年中采样的威斯康星州站点在2015年至2016年期间在某个站点上出现假阳性的可能性均较低（0.015； 95％CI 0.009-0.021），但检出概率（但未占用）下降了。占用与进入森林内部的距离（距最近道路的距离）呈正相关。©2020野生动物协会。占用与进入森林内部的距离（距最近道路的距离）呈正相关。©2020野生动物协会。占用与进入森林内部的距离（距最近道路的距离）呈正相关。©2020野生动物协会。