Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Over the next five years, my research program will generate novel insights into the behavioural flexibility of bats and their responses to changes in climate, land- use, and anthropogenic threats. Bats in North America are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, white -nose syndrome (WNS: a disease caused by a fungal pathogen), wind energy development, and climate change. In addition to the threats bats face, there are many unanswered questions surrounding the basic biology of bat migration, particularly bats' use of migratory cues. For example: Are routes and timing innate or a response to environmental conditions? If the latter, will changing climates and land -use prolong turbine exposure? If turbines proliferate along historic migratory routes, can bats find and use new routes? Are migratory behaviours in bats heritable, as they are in birds? Are certain phenotypes more likely to be killed (e.g. bold vs. shy individuals) and if so, how will this influence migratoriness and exploratory behaviour of bats? Will attraction to turbines abate over time as bolder individuals are killed? In other words, could turbines, or other major anthropogenic threats, act as selective agents, potentially selecting for phenotypes that are shyer, less exploratory, and less migratory? We will explore these questions via four interrelated short--term objectives: to understand 1) navigational cues used during migration, 2) flexibility in seasonal behaviours, 3) adaptability of species at the edge of their seasonal range, and 4) variation in and heritability of personality traits. Collectively, achieving these short--term objectives will contribute to the long--term vision of my research program, which is to understand behavioural flexibility and adaptability of bats to changing environments and anthropogenic threats and to determine how populations will adapt to the myriad threats bats face. Our research will expand on existing knowledge of the evolution and ecology of migration in bats and persistence of species at the edge of their range, and contribute valuable data on poorly understood, data deficient, and at -risk wildlife in Canada. This information can be used by researchers, government biologists, and conservation organizations to inform wildlife management plans and conservation efforts, and in particular, to better understand potential risks and threats to these populations.