Urban noise, such as that of traffic, can affect the sensory capabilities in animals. Foragers acting optimally are expected to exploit feeding patches depending on the cost/benefit ratio, and some noises can cause increased foraging costs. We hypothesized that traffic noise affects foraging patch quality for aerial-insectivorous bats and predicted that there are measurable differences in their foraging activity and in their echolocation signals between nights with or without traffic noise. We tested these predictions in the Lesser Bulldog Bat, Noctilio albiventris, foraging over aquaculture fishponds, by recording bat activity on nights playing traffic noise and on traffic-sound free control nights. We measured foraging activity by counting the number of search passes and feeding buzzes made by the bats and measured several characteristics of echolocation signals. Foraging activity was higher during noisy nights than during control ones, probably due to the need of more time to obtain information about prey under noisy conditions. When exposed to traffic noise, the bats changed the spectral and temporal characteristics of echolocation signals. We suggest that exposure to traffic noise increases foraging costs for N. albiventris and posit that these bats continue foraging under noisy conditions because they can modulate their echolocation signals to obtain enough information.

Insect-eating bats play a crucial role in agriculture and public health by suppressing populations of agricultural pests and disease vectors. These ecosystem services promoted by insect-eating bats are essential in a world that seeks sustainability in agricultural production and the management of urban areas. Despite Brazil’s status as one of the largest agricultural producers globally, research using insect-eating bats for pest control is lacking. This review underscores the importance of filling this knowledge gap and provides guidelines for future research. Bats exhibit diverse feeding habits and consume significant quantities of insects, including agricultural pests. While studies in the USA and Europe have highlighted insect-eating bats’ role in reducing agricultural losses, research in Brazil is limited. Challenges include the need for more advanced diet analysis techniques, such as DNA metabarcoding, and understanding bat habitat use in agricultural and urban landscapes. Research on natural and artificial roosts’ effectiveness and population dynamics is also essential. Integrating bat conservation into agricultural sustainability requires investment in technological methods, valuation of ecosystem services, population monitoring, habitat use studies and environmental education. Financial incentives and collaboration between sectors are crucial for advancing research and implementing bat-friendly practices in agriculture, ultimately enhancing biodiversity conservation and production sustainability in Brazil.

La Colección Mastozoológica del Museo de Historia Natural-Unillanos (MHNU-M) alberga en el momento 422 especímenes pertenecientes a ocho órdenes, 16 familias, 46 géneros, y 66 especies. Los especímenes provienen de cinco departamentos de Colombia, principalmente de la región de la Orinoquía. El número de especímenes de la Colección se ha enriquecido con actividades académicas de la Universidad de los Llanos, tesis de pre y posgrado, convenios y proyectos de investigación.

Insectivorous bats of the genus Pteronotus are considered rare or uncommon because they are difficult to capture with traditional methods (i.e., mist nets and harp traps). However, these bats have distinct echolocation call design that enables their detection and recognition acoustically. In this note, we report the presence of 3 species of bats of the Pteronotus genus from acoustic records in the department of Vichada in Colombia and we present a brief characterization of the echolocation calls for each species. We conducted passive acoustic monitoring in 3 localities and analyzed echolocation calls of sequences. Additionally, we searched for bat capture records in biological collections and scientific articles to find out the current distribution of the Pteronotus genus in Colombia. We recorded 3 species of bats of the Pteronotus genus: P. personatus, P. gymnonotus, and P. cf. rubiginosus. As for the search of records in biological collections and articles, we found that 8 out of 59 records of Pteronotus species in Colombia were from Vichada department. This work provides evidence that acoustic surveys for bats efficiently register elusive and difficult-to-capture insectivorous species, such as those of the genus Pteronotus.

A central quest in conservation biology is to understand how wildlife responds to human-modified landscapes. Yet assessing features of transformed landscapes is non-trivial because categorical maps obscure ecologically meaningful transitions that organisms perceive continuously. We overcame this limitation by using satellite-based fine-scale continuous measures of landscape structure to examine how the cover, complexity, distribution and isolation of exposed and forested areas influence the composition of two guild of aerial insectivorous bats across multiple spatial scales. Although insectivorous bats provide key ecosystem services, it is still unclear which landscape features favor or reduce their abundance, and at what scales these effects occur. Our study was conducted in a heterogeneous agricultural mosaic in the central Andes of Colombia, ranging from well-preserved forests to open-pit mines. Bats that forage within forests or along edges were more abundant at sites with more forest cover but also where vegetation was more complex in terms of roughness and the presence of edges across all spatial scales. Contrary to our predictions, bats that forage in open spaces decreased in areas where exposed lands and fragments were dispersed and isolated at small spatial scales. At large spatial scales, open-space bats required abundant forest cover. These results show that insectivorous bats respond differently to landscape change depending on their ecology and movement behavior, and that these responses vary with spatial scale. Our findings highlight the value of using continuous landscape measures to better understand, manage, and conserve insectivorous bats in regions undergoing rapid land-use change.