Graduation Date
Summer 2025
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Master of Science degree with a major in Natural Resources, option Wildlife
Committee Chair Name
Dr. Ho Yi Wan
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Theodore Weller
Second Committee Member Affiliation
Community Member or Outside Professional
Third Committee Member Name
Dr. Anna Goldman
Third Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Fourth Committee Member Name
Dr. Daniel Barton
Fourth Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Roosting, Bat, Northern California, Wildfire, Post-fire, Roosting ecology, Spatial ecology, Snags
Subject Categories
Wildlife
Abstract
Silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans) are one of the most widely distributed forest bats in North America. Although wildfires have been increasing across their range, how they respond to wildfire is understudied. Previous studies on silver-haired bats and fire focused on roosting behavior in low-severity controlled burns or used acoustics to understand activity levels post-wildfire. Quantifying how silver-haired bats use the physical structures created by high-severity wildfires and the landscape features in which they occur is critical in the face of rapidly shifting fire regimes. During the summer of 2023 and 2024 I radio-tracked male silver-haired bats to 37 roosts on the Lassen National Forest. I found that with increasing diameter at breast height, trees had higher odds of being used as a roost than random trees. At the landscape scale, none of the variables I measured were statistically significant. With fire frequency and severity forecasted to increase, we must understand how fire impacted areas are used by bats to inform post-fire management efforts.
Citation Style
Journal of Wildlife Management
Recommended Citation
Lewis, Alexander Christopher, "Roosting habits of male silver-haired bats in the Willard Creek Drainage of Northeastern California" (2025). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2320.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2320