Foraging Behavior and Habitat Selection of Noack's Round-Leaf Bat (Hipposideros aff. ruber) and Conservation Implications

In sub-Saharan Africa, anthropogenic activities such as cocoa (Theobroma cacao) farming have replaced the natural forest vegetation, making agricultural environments more readily available to some species of bats. To augment bat conservation in such highly modified agro-environments, we evaluated the foraging decisions of the widely distributed Noack’s round-leaf bat (Hipposideros aff. ruber) in a Ghanaian agro-environment for two factors: (a) foraging durations and (b) habitat selection from radio telemetry data collected from 13 bats. We hypothesized that it opportunistically selects foraging habitats in proportion to its availability. Our compositional analysis revealed, however, a nonrandom use of habitats. A ranking matrix indicated Hipposideros aff. ruber uses all available habitats but strongly preferred seminatural habitats dominated by fallow lands. Cocoa farms were predominantly used as flight paths for commuting between roosts and other nearby habitats during foraging. We observed a mean foragi...