Foraging activity of bats in historic landscape parks in relation to habitat composition and park management INTRODUCTION Parkland habitats, prominent features of historic land- scape parks throughout Europe, are the products of his- toric land-management systems. Parkland is defined as ‘large, open-grown or high forest trees (often pollards) at various densities, in a matrix of grazed grassland’ (Anon, 1998b). The conservation value of parkland is recognized: a UK Biodiversity Action Plan exists for lowland wood-pasture and parkland habitats (Biodiversity Action Plans are the UK government’s response to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity at Rio de Janeiro; Anon., 1995). Landscape parks with parkland habitats may represent ‘islands’ of favourable habitat in an intensively farmed landscape. Parkland habitats are likely to be important to bats, which roost in hollow trees in parkland or in the buildings present within landscape parks and forage in the mosaic of semi- natural habitats typical of landscape parks (Kirby et al., 1995). Not much is known about the use of landscape parks by bats. A roosting density of about 20 bats/ha for each of five tree-roosting species was found within a land- scape park (4.39 ha) in Bohemia (C ˇ erveny ´ & Bürger, 1989); more typical densities for bats are < 5 bats/ha (review in Gaisler, 1979). Rare bat species are more common in buildings in the National Trust’s historic landscape parks than they are in the British bat fauna (Bullock, 1995). While parkland is clearly a good roost- ing habitat (C ˇ erveny ´ & Bürger, 1989; Limpens & Bongers, 1991), it may be avoided by foraging bats (Walsh & Harris, 1996a,b). However, some evidence suggests that parklands may be important foraging sites for bats: habitats selected by foraging bats include those near water, and woodland (Walsh & Harris, 1996a; Vaughan, Jones & Harris, 1997a), both of which are often present in landscape parks. All 16 species of British bats and their roosts are pro- tected by law in the European Union as well as by sep- arate legislation in the UK (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994). Foraging habitats, however, are not protected unless they are designated as foraging sites under European or UK legislation. Populations of seven British bat species are believed to have declined in recent decades (Harris et al., 1995) and six (of which one is already extinct in the UK) are considered to be threat- ened and therefore have UK Biodiversity Action Plans (Anon., 1995; 1998a). More work is needed to deter- mine the foraging habitat requirements of bats so that valuable habitats can be conserved. In this study, bat detectors were used to evaluate the Animal Conservation (2002) 5, 309–316 © 2002 The Zoological Society of London DOI:10.1017/S1367943002004067 Printed in the United Kingdom Miriam Glendell 1 and Nancy Vaughan 2 1 Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck College, University of London, 26 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DQ, UK. Current address: Dartmoor National Park Authority, Parke, Bovey Tracey, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ13 9JQ, UK 2 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UG, UK (Received 10 December 2001; accepted 17 June 2002) Abstract Bat activity was quantified in 15 historic landscape parks in England to assess the importance of habi- tat features within them for foraging bats. Unimproved grassland, water and plantation woodland were selected (used more than expected based on availability) by all bat species. Pipistrellus pipistrellus selected unimproved grassland and areas around water; Pipistrellus pygmaeus selected semi-natural woodland and tree lines; ‘Myotis group’ bats, (including Myotis spp., Plecotus spp. and Barbastella barbastellus) selected water and plantation woodland; and ‘Nyctalus group’ bats (including Nyctalus spp. and Eptesicus serotinus) selected unimproved grassland and parkland. The relative area of water- courses and tree lines in the landscape parks was the best predictor of bat activity. Landscape parks including unimproved grassland, water, parkland, semi-natural woodland, plantation woodland and tree lines have the most potential for foraging bats, and may form favourable ‘islands’ in intensively managed agricultural landscapes. To maximize the conservation value of historic landscape parks for bats, these habitats should be conserved or created. All correspondence to: Nancy Vaughan. Tel: 0117 9545953; Fax: 0117 9257374; E-mail: nancy.vaughan@bristol.ac.uk.