Effect of the intensity of the moonlight and wind speed in the activity of phyllostomid bats of Mena Nizanda, Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

We analyze the influence of wind speed and the intensity of moonlight in daily activity patterns of 4 species of phyllostomid bats of Mena Nizanda, Juchitán, Oaxaca. When we consider all the data set, We found a significant and inverse correlation between the activity of bats and the wind speed, while the intensity of moonlight showed no statistically significant association with the activity of bats. The higher activity was observed with wind speed from 24 to 15.5 km/h and high luminosity (4 on a scale from 0 to 5). When we considering only the activity of Choeroniscus godmani, a small-size nectar-feeding species and the most abundant species of the community, activity was correlated positively and significantly with the intensity of moonlight, and inversely and significantly with the wind speed. When we considered data of 3 large-size fruit-eaten specialists in Ficus of the genus Artibeus, we did not find statistically significant correlation with neither wind speed or intensity of moonlight. The above results, as well as the act that the number of captures of C. godmani and those of three species of Artibeus do not show significant correlation, support the hypothesis that the activity patterns of bats are affected by the 2 environmental factors studied in a species-specific way.