Data from: Bat winter foraging habitat use in working forests: A multispecies spatial occupancy approach

Insectivorous bats in temperate zones have evolved strategies such as
migration or hibernation to overcome challenges of reduced resource
availability and increased energy demand during winter. In the
southeastern United States Coastal Plain, bats are either year-round
residents and remain active during winter or are migrants from colder
areas seeking milder temperatures. Southeastern Coastal Plain forests also
may represent important areas for remnant populations of species impacted
by white-nose syndrome. Working pine (Pinus spp.) forests comprise a large
proportion of southeastern Coastal Plain forests, yet winter bat habitat
associations and how forest management affects bat use remain
understudied. Hence, we used hierarchical multispecies spatial occupancy
models to evaluate factors influencing winter bat occupancy and foraging
habitat associations in working forests of the southeastern Coastal Plain.
From January to March 2020–2022, we deployed Anabat Swift acoustic
detectors and measured site- and landscape-level covariates on six working
landscapes. We detected five species of bats and three species groups at
93% (224/240) of sites. We observed higher species richness at sites with
high proportions of contiguous forest and low levels of basal area. At the
species level, occupancy patterns were influenced by site and landscape
covariates, which had varying effects on species with distinct foraging
strategies. Temperature was an important predictor of detectability. Our
findings offer new insights into the ecology of bats in working forest
landscapes during winter, where we highlight positive responses in
occupancy with contiguous forests and lower levels of basal area, as in
previous summer work. By providing valuable information on winter
community composition and foraging habitat associations, we hope to guide
management decisions for forest attributes important to these species,
thus increasing conservation opportunities within working forests.