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 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...

城市扩张是自然生态系统面临的主要威胁之一，同时也为适应性较强的物种提供了可利用的全新生存契机。灰头狐蝠（Pteropus poliocephalus）是一种受胁、移动性极强的蝙蝠物种，如今在人类主导的景观中出现的频次愈发升高，由此带来了诸多管理与保护难题。学界普遍认为狐蝠的城市化现象源于天然觅食栖息地的缩减、城市觅食资源的增多，或是二者共同作用的结果。然而目前学界对人类改造区域内狐蝠的景观利用模式，以及该模式在自然区域中的差异仍知之甚少。本研究针对98只经卫星追踪的灰头狐蝠，分析其在长达5年的时间里于城市与非城市环境中的位置数据，并结合植被数据与已发表的觅食栖息地质量指数开展研究。研究结果显示，经人类改造的觅食景观全年支撑着灰头狐蝠种群的相当一部分个体。当个体在非城市区域栖息时……