Molossid bats in an African agro-ecosystem select sugarcane fields as foraging habitat Christina Lehmkuhl Noer 1 * , Torben Dabelsteen 1 , Kristine Bohmann 2 & Ara Monadjem 3 1 Animal Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 2 Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark 3 All Out Africa Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Swaziland, Private Bag 4, Kwaluseni, Swaziland Received 4 May 2011. Accepted 6 June 2011 Two coexisting species of African molossids, the little free-tailed bat, Chaerephon pumilus, and the Angolan free-tailed bat, Mops condylurus, were studied in the lowveld of Swaziland. Nine C. pumilus and five M. condylurus, all non-lactating females, were radio-tracked in order to investigate their habitat utilization. The results confirmed that both of these species selected to forage over sugarcane fields instead of over the other habitats available in the area: savanna, riparian forest and urban areas. Foraging ranges were relatively large with C. pumilus travelling on average a maximum of 4.2 km from the roost and M. condylurus covering 4.8 km. The mean activity areas ranged from 976 ha (minimum convex polygon) to 1319 ha (95% kernel) for C. pumilus and from 1190 ha (MCP) to 1437 ha (95% kernel) for M. condylurus. Interspecific differences in the mean activity area or maximum distance travelled were not found. The results of this study suggest that these species have a potential role as pest-controlling agents over sugarcane fields. Key words: Chiroptera, Molossidae, habitat selection, telemetry, foraging habitat. INTRODUCTION Insectivorous bats comprise more than two-thirds of the world’s 1100 bat species and play pivotal ecological roles by providing numerous ecosys- tem services (Fenton 2001; Mickleburgh et al. 2002), including biological control of pest insects (Lee & McCracken 2005; Cleveland et al. 2006). Assessments of insectivore bats as potential bio- logical control agents have been carried out in America (Lee & McCracken 2005; Cleveland et al. 2006) and Asia (Leelapaibul et al. 2005), but not yet in Africa. Assessing the role of a particular bat species as a biological control agent requires knowledge of the diet of that species. However, information about its foraging ecology is also important. Knowing whether a bat concentrates its foraging over agro-ecosystems or not, assists in deciding whether it may be a useful control agent. Telemetry is a widely used tool for collecting information on movements of bats that may be important for understanding their ecology (Bontadina et al. 2002; Nicholls & Racey 2006; Monadjem et al. 2009). Telemetry studies have been carried out in Asia (Mildenstein et al. 2005) Australia (Rhodes & Catterall 2008) Europe (Russo et al. 2002; Kerth & Melber 2009) and America (Lacki et al. 2009). However, only a few of Africa’s bat species have been radio-tracked, e.g. Nycteris thebaica, Scoto- philus dinganii and S. cf. viridis in Swaziland (Monadjem et al. 2010a,b) and Scotophilus dinganii, Scotophilus mhlanganii, Laephotis wintoni and Otomops martiensseni in South Africa (Fenton et al. 2002; Jacobs et al. 2005; Jacobs & Barclay 2009). The wing morphology and nature of echolocation calls of most molossids restrict them to foraging in open areas with minimal clutter (Norberg & Rayner 1987; Fenton & Griffin 1997) while giving them access to high-flying insects (Fenton & Griffin 1997). The little free-tailed bat, Chaerephon pumilus, and Angolan free-tailed bat, Mops condylurus, are gregarious, insectivorous bats that are widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, where they are often found to coexist (Bouchard 1998; Taylor 2000; Skinner & Chimimba 2005). They have a broad habitat tolerance provided that adequate roosting places are available (Happold & Happold 1989; Fenton et al. 1994; Monadjem et al. 2010a). Molossids are highly adaptable to changes in their environment (Fenton et al. 2002), and C. pumilus and M. condylurus are able to exploit African Zoology 47(1): 1–11 (April 2012) *Author for correspondence. E-mail: noer.christina@gmail.com