Results

Behaviours

In total 913 bats (repetition might occur) were observed. Among all the observed behaviours “hanging close” (712) was displayed the most often and “landing attempt” (4) the least. The same applies to the solitary category, while in the antagonistic category, “flapping wings” (142) was seen the most often and “chasing” (10) the least (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Two overview bar plots of the total occurrences of the behaviours displayed. It shows A: the solitary (green) and B: the antagonistic (red) behaviours

Activity

With a higher number of food patches, the activity increased. The activity of bats influences the time spent on the tree. With an increase of individuals per night, the mean time an individual spent on the tree decreases.

Figure 2: Number of individuals per night over the time of the data collection (June 2023). It depicts the increase of the number of individuals per night with a higher number of food patches (baskets).
Figure 3: The mean time spent on the tree is lower with a higher number of individuals

Defence Behaviour

A higher number of individuals during the night increased the rate of aggressive behaviour of the individuals (Figure 4). Subsequently, more individuals on the tree results in a higher likelihood of displaying defence behaviour.

A higher rate of aggression correlated positively with a higher chance of winning the fight (figure 5)

Figure 4: The mean aggressive behaviour per night in percentage in correlation with the number of individuals per night.
Figure 5: The probability of winning increases with the aggressiveness.
Materials & Methods
discussion