The use of swimming pools by bats in a game reserve in South Africa

Abstract

Wildlife is generally thought to preferentially select natural resources over anthropogenic resources and will only select these anthropogenic resources when preferred natural resources are unavailable or limited and the use of such resources in natural and semi-natural habitats is not yet well understood. Therefore, we explored the use of artificial water sources by bats in a semi-natural habitat by conducting acoustic monitoring surveys at two swimming pools on Amakhala Game Reserve in South Africa from 2018 to 2021 and behavioral observations at one of the swimming pools in 2021. Seven of 23 locally known species were identified in 22,893 recorded resource-related calls, including 1,356 feeding buzzes and 9,352 drinking buzzes. Furthermore, behavioral observation revealed that this is an underestimate of actual resource-related activity as ~70% of observed drinking activity was not acoustically recorded. This study illustrates how anthropogenic features could provide value to wildlife in a semi-natural habitat.