Preliminary notes on bat activity and echolocation in northwestern Argentina.

KALCOUNIS-RÜPPELL, M.C., T.J. BROWN, P.T. HANDFORD, Y R.A. OJEDA

Mastozoología Neotropical/jOUR NEOTROPICAL MAMMALOGY

SAREM

Lugar: Inst Miguel Lillo, San M. de Tucumán; Año: 2004 vol. 10 p. 331 - 333

We recorded echolocation sequences to examine activity of bats in 4 biomes of northwestern Argentina during August 1997 (early southern spring). Our aims were to evaluate the level of bat activity among the four biomes and to preliminarily investigate whether the acoustic structure of echolocation signals conformed to general predictions. We sampled bat activity in sites representing high Andean Puna desert, lowland Chaco thornscrub, lowland Monte desert, montane Yungas forest and montane Chaco thornscrub. No bats were recorded in the Puna, while of the other biomes the least to the most active were: Monte desert, Yungas forest, lowland Chaco thornscrub and montane Chaco thornscrub. Our preliminary results suggest that echolocation signal structure differed among the biomes. In general, signals recorded from bats in Yungas forest were of relatively high frequency whereas signals recorded from bats in Monte desert were of relatively long duration. We show that bats in the less complex biomes tend to be less active. The results of this shortterm, preliminary study highlight the high level of bat activity in the Chaco and the opportunity for further study of the bat community in northwestern Argentina.