Comparative monitoring of the annual activity characteristics of some bats by ringing method in the anatolian sweetgum forests in Koycegiz-Dalyan Specially Protected Area

This study aims to contribute to the understanding and long-term monitoring of changes in the annual activity characteristics of bats that use forests as feeding, sheltering and breeding habitats with the ringing method applied on bats for the first time in Turkey. Within the Köyceğiz-Dalyan Specially Protected Area, 10 different Anatolian Sweetgum Forest fragments with a surface area ranging from 30 hectares to 250 hectares and a total of 47 bat boxes were selected as the study area. A total of 39 bats, including 27 Pipistrellus pipistrellus, 8 Pipistrellus kuhlii, 3 Pipistrellus nathusii and 1 Pipistrellus pygmaeus, were ringed during the field studies conducted monthly during the monitoring period between November 2022 and May 2023. Within the scope of the study, 5 individuals were observed in 2 bat boxes, 4 individuals in 2 bat boxes, 3 individuals in 2 bat boxes and 2 individuals in 4 bat boxes at the same time. In the other boxes, 1 individual was observed. The 10 different sections in the study area were categorized according to habitat characteristics and 15 individuals were ringed in the fragmented large forest fragment, 10 individuals were found in the fragmented small forest parts, 14 individuals were found in the unfragmented large forest parts, while no individuals were ringed in the unfragmented small forest habitats. In the light of these data, it was aimed to reveal whether there is a relationship between habitat fragmentation and the bat boxes preferred by the individuals ringed within the scope of the thesis. For this reason, the statistical analysis using the presence-absence hypothesis revealed that there was no significant relationship between habitat fragmentation and bat individuals' choice of boxes.