Temporal changes of bat diversity in the urban habitat island of Batu Caves, Malaysia

Abstract

Batu Caves is an isolated limestone massif surrounded by urban areas located 11km north of Kuala Lumpur and making it a "habitat island"and sanctuary for wildlife. Urban habitat islands are known as biodiversity hotspots and assist conservation in fragmented city landscapes for animals. The Batu Caves complex offer a unique condition as it houses caves that offer refuge for roosting bats out of the twenty explored caves. The most extensive cave complex is the Dark Cave with more than 2000m of surveyed passages. In this study, we compared the temporal changes of bat species diversity in the habitat island of Batu Caves. Species occurrence data was compiled using a bibliographic search in literature databases and compared with a site survey conducted in 2019 using visual, echolocation and LIDAR methods. Result of the comparison showed that there is a significant decline in bat species occurrences and diversity from previous record of eight species to only four species found roosting in the Dark Cave during our survey in 2019. The showed a decline of the number of roosting bat species especially in the Dark Cave of the habitat island Batu Caves.