Figures & data
Figure 1. Types of the bat boxes: ceramic (CER), large styrofoam-concrete (LSC), small styrofoam-concrete (SSC), wooden (WDN).
Table I. Species composition (numbers of individuals) of bats in the studied boxes found during the 2014 and 2015 years of monitoring. Types of the bat boxes: CER – ceramic, LSC – large styrofoam-concrete, SSC – small styrofoam-concrete, WDN – wooden.
Figure 2. Proportion of bat-boxes used by bats in consecutive research periods. Data from the two years (2013–2014) were combined. Types of the bat boxes: CER – ceramic, LSC – large styrofoam-concrete, SSC – small styrofoam-concrete, WDN – wooden. Pnat – Pipistrellus nathusii, other – remaining bat species, empty – empty boxes.
Figure 3. Average temperature capacity Tcap bat-box for each box type by period (a), PC1 loadings of temperature daily pattern in four types of bat-boxes during (b). Arrows – results of significant post-hoc Tukey’s pairwise comparisons (p < 0.05). Types of the bat boxes: CER – ceramic, LSC – large styrofoam-concrete, SSC – small styrofoam-concrete, WDN – wooden.
Figure 4. Relationship of the number of Nathusius’ Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus nathusii) inhabiting a particular type of box in spring migration, breeding and mating/migration periods, depending on the distance from the water reservoir. Line - linear model fitted to the data: black - LSC, grey - SSC. Types of the bat boxes: CER – ceramic, LSC – large styrofoam-concrete, SSC – small styrofoam-concrete, WDN – wooden.
Table II. Results of the GLM explaining the P. nathusii numbers in relation to structure of forest characteristic in Wdzydzki LP, Poland, in the years 2013–2014. Factors: type – box design and material (CER – ceramic, SSC – small styrofoam-concrete, WDN – wooden), tree_front - distance to the nearest tree in front of the bat-box, canopy - canopy cover above the bat-box location, obstacles – presence of obstacles (branches, undergrowth) in front of the entrance, entr_orient – orientation of the entrance towards cardinal directions, edge – distance to the edge of the forest, water – distance to the nearest lake, pond or a river, box_near – the shortest distance to the nearest box. See material and methods section for details.
Figure 5. The percentage of occupied boxes by bats according to latitude: grey circles – wooden boxes, black circles – sawdust-concrete, styrofoam-concrete and other ceramic boxes. Size of the circle equals the sample size. Data from 27 locations from Poland, n = 6992 (see: Appendix).
