LCI Research

Bat Diversity and Edge Preferences of Bats on
Spring Island, South Carolina.

Travis Scott
Coastal Carolina University

A seminole bat is examined by Coastal Carolina researchers.

The first goal of this project is to assess bat species richness on Spring Island. This will be done by using mist nets in various habitats on the island, including live oak forests, pine flatwoods, maritime forests, palmetto-scrub areas, and the golf course. Acoustic monitoring will be conducted on the island using high-frequency sound detection devices and recorders. These instruments record the high-frequency transit and feeding calls emitted by bats. After these calls have been recorded, they will be converted to individual sonograms and the species of each call will be identified.

The second goal of this project is to evaluate and quantify the use of edge habitats by feeding bats on the island. The edge habitats used for this project are grass fields adjacent to either Pine-dominated forests or Mixed/Hardwood-dominated forests. To accomplish this, high-frequency bat detectors and insect light traps will be set up in grass fields on the island and will run from dusk till dawn. The duration of this project is from the middle of May through the middle of August 2007.