Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Jones, Jeanne

Committee Member

Belant, Jerold

Committee Member

Richardson, David

Committee Member

Belant, Jerrold

Date of Degree

12-9-2011

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Forest Resources

Department

Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture

Abstract

Rafinesque’s big-eared bats (Corynorhinus rafinesquii; RBEB) and southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius; SEM) are listed on IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Limited information on roost sites exists. I conducted roost surveys for RBEB and SEM on public forest lands in central Mississippi during winter and spring 2010. During winter, RBEB and SEM roosted in cavity trees with greater trunk diameters. In spring, roost trees used by SEM were located in forested areas of lower elevation, less slope, and greater distances from roads. Because imperfect detection can affect occupancy estimates, I estimated detection probabilities under different survey methods. Detection probability ranged from 95 – 100% and 92 – 99% when one to 2 observers used repeated surveys and removal method, respectfully. When estimating for abundance, presence of ≤20 bats led to count errors of <4%. When >20 bats were present, count errors were 38.1%. Observers correctly identified species 91% of the time.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/16214

Comments

Rafinesque's big-eared bat||Southeastern myotis||roost||cavity tree||detection probability

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