Abstract The spread of white-nose syndrome into western North America has caused concerns that bat species inhabiting the region will soon experience population declines like those seen to the east. However, much of the region lacks baseline estimates of abundance for bats believed to be susceptible to WNS due to a scarcity of known hibernacula, where populations are traditionally monitored. The goal of this study was to determine the abundance, roost fidelity, and activity patterns of summer colonies of female little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) in an area with no known hibernacula. To accomplish this, we subcutaneously implanted passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags into 297 female little brown myotis from 2015 to 2018 and installed radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers and antennas inside three maternity roosts in Yellowstone National Park. Bats occupied RFID-monitored roosts on 32% of days and were never detected at maternity roosts located > 16 km from where they were tagged. Roost fidelity varied throughout summer and was greatest during late gestation and early lactation. This allowed us to combine nightly scans of RFID-tagged bats with visual emergence counts to estimate the population of bats using two roosts located >16 km apart during 2017–2018. Population estimates of both colonies were markedly higher (N* = 208 ± 6 bats and N* = 836 ± 67 bats during 2018) than the number of bats seen during evening emergence (high counts of 127 and 222, respectively). Nocturnal visits of tagged bats to these roosts increased around the time of parturition, indicative of bats returning to nurse young. These data show that emergence count and PIT tag data can be combined to monitor bat population abundance and activity patterns in areas where hibernacula are absent or where their locations are unknown.

中文翻译：

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黄石国家公园小褐鼠尾草种群规模及活动模式

摘要 白鼻综合症蔓延到北美西部已经引起了人们的担忧，即居住在该地区的蝙蝠物种很快就会像东部那样出现种群数量下降。然而，由于缺乏已知的冬眠区，该地区的大部分地区缺乏对被认为易受 WNS 影响的蝙蝠数量的基线估计，而传统上对这些地区的种群进行监测。本研究的目的是确定在没有已知冬眠的地区，雌性小褐鼠尾草 (Myotis lucifugus) 夏季群落的丰度、栖息保真度和活动模式。要做到这一点，从 2015 年到 2018 年，我们将无源集成应答器 (PIT) 标签植入 ​​297 只雌性小褐家鼠体内，并在黄石国家公园的三个产房内安装了射频识别 (RFID) 阅读器和天线。蝙蝠在 32% 的日子里占据了 RFID 监控的栖息地，并且从未在位于 > 的产妇栖息地中被发现。距离他们被标记的地方 16 公里。栖息地保真度在整个夏季变化，在妊娠晚期和泌乳早期最为显着。这使我们能够将 RFID 标记蝙蝠的夜间扫描与视觉出现计数相结合，以估计 2017 年至 2018 年期间使用两个相距大于 16 公里的栖息地的蝙蝠数量。两个群体的种群估计数（N* = 208 ± 6 只蝙蝠和 N* = 836 ± 67 只蝙蝠在 2018 年）明显高于夜间出现的蝙蝠数量（分别为 127 和 222 的高计数）。在分娩前后，标记蝙蝠对这些栖息地的夜间访问有所增加，这表明蝙蝠回到了幼崽身上。这些数据表明，出现次数和 PIT 标签数据可以结合起来监测没有冬眠或位置未知的地区的蝙蝠种群丰度和活动模式。