The Influence of Environmental Parameters on the Activity of two Cryptic Bat Species: Pipistrellus pipistrellus & Pipistrellus pygmaeus

This investigation examined the varying levels of bat activity within different habitat types, in addition to the importance and impacts of environmental parameters on the activity of the two cryptic species: Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus. For both species, activity was seen to be significantly greater for arable habitat than any other habitat type, yet was seen to be lowest for a mix of arable and improved grassland. Despite these similarities, further analysis showed common pipistrelle activity to only be significantly lower for semi-improved grassland than arable, whilst all other habitats, except bare ground and arable/semi-improved, were significantly lower for soprano pipistrelle. With regards to environmental parameters, levels of activity for both species, were seen to significantly increase with a rise in temperature, in particularly for the common pipistrelle for which temperature was shown to of the greatest importance. In contrast, bat activity was seen to significantly drop during times of increased wind speed and rainfall, a finding that can be supported by the findings of many other studies. This study concluded that both habitat type and environmental parameters play an importance role in the activity of Britains two pipistrelle species. However, it is important that further investigation is undertaken to fully understand how changes in environmental conditions affect the activity of bat species, both of the pipistrellus genus and others