Summer roost site selection of a declining bat species

Abstract Summer habitats are critical to bat population persistence as they support multiple life history stages, including maternity colonies, nursery sites, and foraging locations. The tricolored bat ( Perimyotis subflavus ) is a hibernating North American bat species that uses forested landscapes during summer months; however, information on the summer habitat requirements is limited. The objective of this work was to quantify the characteristics of roost sites selected by tricolored bats during summer months. We captured, tagged, and tracked 15 bats using radio-telemetry to 55 roost locations. At each roost, we recorded roost habitat characteristics and other forest characteristics within a 0.1 ha circular plot surrounding the roost tree and a 1 km buffer at the landscape scale. We repeated these measurements for three random trees per roost tree to characterize available habitat for selection. We used a suite of mixed conditional logistic regression models to test multiple factors known to influence roost-site selection for various bat species and compared using Akaike information criterion to select the best model. The top model at the roost scale demonstrated that roost selection was influenced by roost tree height, while the landscape scale was influenced by deciduous forest and distance to roads. There is a critical information gap for the ongoing recovery of tricolored bats; better understanding of summer habitat and proper forest management implications, as well as information on scale-specific habitat selection, is needed to better understand tricolored bat management needs.