Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox

Urban expansion is a major threat to natural ecosystems but also creates novel opportunities that adaptable species can exploit. The grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is a threatened, highly mobile species of bat that is increasingly found in human-dominated landscapes, leading to many...

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Autores principales:	Samantha H. Yabsley, Jessica Meade, John M. Martin, Justin A. Welbergen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2cfd6dceffff4c39a621f2a8bf2561c8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2cfd6dceffff4c39a621f2a8bf2561c82021-11-11T06:44:21ZHuman-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox1932-6203https://doaj.org/article/2cfd6dceffff4c39a621f2a8bf2561c82021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8559981/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Urban expansion is a major threat to natural ecosystems but also creates novel opportunities that adaptable species can exploit. The grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is a threatened, highly mobile species of bat that is increasingly found in human-dominated landscapes, leading to many management and conservation challenges. Flying-fox urbanisation is thought to be a result of diminishing natural foraging habitat or increasing urban food resources, or both. However, little is known about landscape utilisation of flying-foxes in human-modified areas, and how this may differ in natural areas. Here we examine positional data from 98 satellite-tracked P. poliocephalus for up to 5 years in urban and non-urban environments, in relation to vegetation data and published indices of foraging habitat quality. Our findings indicate that human-modified foraging landscapes sustain a large proportion of the P. poliocephalus population year-round. When individuals roosted in non-urban and minor-urban areas, they relied primarily on wet and dry sclerophyll forest, forested wetlands, and rainforest for foraging, and preferentially visited foraging habitat designated as high-quality. However, our results highlight the importance of human-modified foraging habitats throughout the species’ range, and particularly for individuals that roosted in major-urban environments. The exact plant species that exist in human-modified habitats are largely undocumented; however, where this information was available, foraging by P. poliocephalus was associated with different dominant plant species depending on whether individuals roosted in ‘urban’ or ‘non-urban’ areas. Overall, our results demonstrate clear differences in urban- and non-urban landscape utilisation by foraging P. poliocephalus. However, further research is needed to understand the exact foraging resources used, particularly in human-modified habitats, and hence what attracts flying-foxes to urban areas. Such information could be used to modify the urban foraging landscape, to assist long-term habitat management programs aimed at minimising human-wildlife conflict and maximising resource availability within and outside of urban environments.Samantha H. YabsleyJessica MeadeJohn M. MartinJustin A. WelbergenPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Samantha H. Yabsley Jessica Meade John M. Martin Justin A. Welbergen Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox
description	Urban expansion is a major threat to natural ecosystems but also creates novel opportunities that adaptable species can exploit. The grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is a threatened, highly mobile species of bat that is increasingly found in human-dominated landscapes, leading to many management and conservation challenges. Flying-fox urbanisation is thought to be a result of diminishing natural foraging habitat or increasing urban food resources, or both. However, little is known about landscape utilisation of flying-foxes in human-modified areas, and how this may differ in natural areas. Here we examine positional data from 98 satellite-tracked P. poliocephalus for up to 5 years in urban and non-urban environments, in relation to vegetation data and published indices of foraging habitat quality. Our findings indicate that human-modified foraging landscapes sustain a large proportion of the P. poliocephalus population year-round. When individuals roosted in non-urban and minor-urban areas, they relied primarily on wet and dry sclerophyll forest, forested wetlands, and rainforest for foraging, and preferentially visited foraging habitat designated as high-quality. However, our results highlight the importance of human-modified foraging habitats throughout the species’ range, and particularly for individuals that roosted in major-urban environments. The exact plant species that exist in human-modified habitats are largely undocumented; however, where this information was available, foraging by P. poliocephalus was associated with different dominant plant species depending on whether individuals roosted in ‘urban’ or ‘non-urban’ areas. Overall, our results demonstrate clear differences in urban- and non-urban landscape utilisation by foraging P. poliocephalus. However, further research is needed to understand the exact foraging resources used, particularly in human-modified habitats, and hence what attracts flying-foxes to urban areas. Such information could be used to modify the urban foraging landscape, to assist long-term habitat management programs aimed at minimising human-wildlife conflict and maximising resource availability within and outside of urban environments.
format	article
author	Samantha H. Yabsley Jessica Meade John M. Martin Justin A. Welbergen
author_facet	Samantha H. Yabsley Jessica Meade John M. Martin Justin A. Welbergen
author_sort	Samantha H. Yabsley
title	Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox
title_short	Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox
title_full	Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox
title_fullStr	Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox
title_full_unstemmed	Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox
title_sort	human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: the grey-headed flying-fox
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/2cfd6dceffff4c39a621f2a8bf2561c8
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Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox

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