Annual cycle of bats in a cave of Jebel Errwa, a sub-desert zone of central Tunisia

Vol. 32 No. 3 (2019)
Published: 5 September 2019
Chiroptera, cave, nursery, protection, northwest Africa
Abstract Views: 129
Read on Taylor & Francis: 0
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Ridha Dalhoumi
ridhadalhoumi@gmail.com
Laboratoire de Biosurveillance de l’Environnement, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, 7021 Zarzouna, Tunisia.
Patricia Aissa
Laboratoire de Biosurveillance de l’Environnement, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, 7021 Zarzouna, Tunisia.
Hamouda Beyrem
Laboratoire de Biosurveillance de l’Environnement, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, 7021 Zarzouna, Tunisia.
Stéphane Aulagnier
Comportement et Ecologie de la Faune Sauvage, Université de Toulouse, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, CS 52627, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan Cedex, France.

Bat use of the “Bat cave” of Jebel Errwa (central Tunisia) was studied over one year. A maximum of 650 bats were found during diurnal and nocturnal surveys. Maximum activity at emergence was reported in late spring and early summer when the cave was occupied by nurseries of Myotis punicus, Rhinolophus euryale, Rhinolophus mehelyi and Miniopterus schreibersii. Females gave birth in May in the largest, moistest and coolest room of the roost; young started to fly in June and left the cave in August. Despite frequent disturbance by visitors, “Bat Cave” of Jebel Errwa is one of the most important underground sites in central Tunisia and should be protected.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Dalhoumi, R., Aissa, P., Beyrem, H., & Aulagnier, S. (2019). Annual cycle of bats in a cave of Jebel Errwa, a sub-desert zone of central Tunisia. Tropical Zoology, 32(3), 155–165. Retrieved from https://biology.pagepress.org/tz/article/view/24

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.