| dc.description.abstract | Uganda has a rich and diverse chiropteran fauna with over 90 species, these are 77 micro chiropterans and 13 mega chiropterans. The main factor to this richness is the wide range of altitudinal variation and the complex array of different vegetation types but as the human population continues to grow, more forested land will be converted to agricultural land to meet the growing food demands especially in the tropics where the most species rich habitats in the world are found.Therefore,there is need to harmonize the conservation of biodiversity and livelihood so that the environment is not sacrificed at the altar of economic development. This research on the diversity and activity of micro bats in areas of differing land use practices is meant to provide the missing information on the ecology and behavior of bats amidst anthropogenic habitat modifications. The study was conducted in and Mabira central forest reserve owing to its location as an isolated forest in central Uganda, an area with rapid population growth rate (3.5%) and several anthropogenic alterations for, industrialization, extensive and subsistence agriculture.
The main objective of this study was to evaluate the conservation value for bats of areas with differing land use practices. Achieved through an assessment of the species composition, richness and activity of the bats in different survey areas.
The study was implemented using echolocation calls of bats recorded for three sampling nights (3.5hrs each site) from 19:00hrs to 22:30hrs using SM4+bat detector at the three sampling sites of; forest interior, sugarcane plantation and home garden (on 19th, 20th and 21st April, 2019 respectively).
From the different sampling nights, a total of 543, 446, 543 bats were identified (respectively in forest interior, sugarcane plantation and home garden) from total recorded calls of 487, 457, and 507 respectively. These calls represent11 species of bats. The recorded species represent 14.2% of the expected country’s microchiropterans. 60% of the recorded calls belonged to Nycteris and MopCondylurus(30% each), while 19% were for Chaerophonpumila, 14% were Neoromaciacapensis, and 6% Scotoecushirundo.
Home gardens and sugarcane plantation had the highest species richness of 8 species each, compared to the 5 species recorded in the forest. 76.2% of the total number of microbat species recorded was found in the anthropogenically modified landscapes while only 23.8% were recorded the forested interior.
The majority of bats recorded occurred in all three land use types except for Nycteri ssp and Rhinolophus fumigatus which were only recorded in the forest interior.
The microbat activity varied from 457 calls in sugarcane plantation to 507 calls in the home garden, with the forest interior registering an intermediate activity of 487 calls however, the statistical test on these did not show significant difference | en_US |
