Monitoramento de morcegos: ferramentas para o planejamento ambiental e conservação da biodiversidade

Abstract

Bats play an important role in the recovery of degraded areas, where they interact with plants dispersing seeds and pollinating them. They also act in the control of agricultural pests and some species are considered as a risk to public health due to the transmission of diseases, especially the rabies virus. Because they are excellent indicators of environmental quality and relevant for good planning, bats monitoring is increasingly common in scientific research, as well as being included as one of the requirements made by the responsible environmental agency (IBAMA) during environmental licensing. For good monitoring, individual markings are essential. Currently, the most widely used devices are metal bracelets and collars, but the wide variety of methods, distinct coding, injury and lack of standardization isolate the information and make it difficult to reuse. The objective of this study was to initiate the monitoring of bats in a forest fragment of the Northeast of Brazil, analyzing the composition of the species found (diversity, richness and frequency) and testing for the first time in Brazil the efficiency of the use of the visible elastomer implant (VIE) in bats, comparing it to the collars method. The studies were carried out in a forest remnant on the North Coast of Bahia, for ten months and 275 hours of sampling with mist nets. 650 bats were captured, from 22 species and four families. The diversity found was H = 1.87 (Shannon-Wiener) with an estimated 25 species (Bootstrap) and a total of 54 individuals were recaptured. Among the recaptures, nine individuals no longer had the collars as marking, a fact obtained through the markings with elastomers. This research resulted in knowledge about the bat assembly for the region, its importance and the creation of a protocol for individual bat marking using the visible elastomer implant, all of which resulted in important tools for environmental planning and management.