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

Abstract

While the use of anthropogenic resources by wildlife in degraded habitats has been frequently documented, the use of such alternative resources in natural and semi-natural habitats is not yet well understood. We explored the use of artificial water sources by bats in a semi-natural habitat by conducting acoustic monitoring surveys at swimming pools on Amakhala Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa from 2018 to 2020. We identified 7 of 23 local species in 24,909 recorded activities associated with resource use at the swimming pools, including 1,374 feeding buzzes and 9,286 drinking buzzes. This study confirmed that bats were using swimming pools in the game reserve as a foraging and drinking resource and indicates that such anthropogenic features could be of value to bats and potentially other wildlife in natural and semi-natural habitats.