The endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) has been the focus of much research in the past 40 years, primarily with respect to the summer habitat requirements for the species. Recent advances in radio telemetry have allowed researchers to learn about the specific activity patterns for roosting bats. Torpor is an energetic process that bats use to conserve energy through the day. We used an equation that gives a threshold for when the animal enters torpor to quantify the amount of energy conservation among Indiana bats, northern long-eared bat (M. septentrionalis) and little brown bat (M. lucifugus) and their reproductive stage. Additionally, we used the torpor threshold to determine if researchers were causing disturbances to roosting female Myotis bats in the summer. / Department of Biology

Small isolated populations are of particular conservation interest due to their increased extinction risk. This dissertation investigates two small wild bird populations using genetic approaches to inform their conservation. Specifically, one case study investigated a Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) population located in northwest Wyoming near Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. Microsatellite data showed that the Jackson sage-grouse population possessed significantly reduced levels of neutral genetic diversity and was isolated from other Wyoming populations. Analysis with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and microsatellite data provided further evidence that the population's timing of isolation was relatively recent and most likely due to recent anthropogenic habitat changes. Conservation recommendations include maintaining or increasing the population's current size and reestablishing gene flow with the nearest large population. The second case study investigated the genetic distinctiveness of the Floreana island population of the Galápagos Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus galapagoensis). Mitochondrial DNA sequence data did not detect differences across nine island populations, yet microsatellite and morphometric data indicated that limited gene flow existed with the population and surrounding island populations, which appeared asymmetric in direction from Floreana to Santa Cruz with no indication of gene flow into Floreana. These results have important conservation implications and recommend that the Floreana Short-eared Owl population be held in captivity during the rodenticide application planned for an ecosystem restoration project in 2018. The population is less likely to receive immigrants from surrounding island populations if negatively effected by feeding on poisoned rodents.

As human population grows and develops, more urban areas are expanding. Urbanisation has many impacts on the natural environment and one understudied pollutant is artificial light at night. The aims of this thesis were to examine the impacts of street lighting on bats and investigate the exposure of British bat species to artificial light at night and explored the mitigation option of part-night lighting. The current exposure of British bat species to artificial lighting was assessed using roost locations and population sizes from a long-term dataset (1997-2012) from the Bat Conservation Trust’s National Bat Monitoring Programme on seven bat species (Eptesicus serotinus, Myotis nattereri, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, P. pygmaeus, Plecotus auritus, Rhinolophus hipposideros and R. ferrumequinum). These data were combined with satellite imagery in roost sustenance zones and home ranges. Bat roosts were found in areas with brighter light levels than random locations for P. pipistrellus, P. pygmaeus and Plecotus auritus. Species that forage around streetlights (P. pipistrellus and P. pygmaeus) had significantly higher light levels in the landscape around their roosts than species which avoid street lit areas (R. hipposideros, M. nattereri and P. auritus). Colony size was negatively correlated with light levels. This study highlights that different species have different requirements in the landscapes around their roosts. To investigate landscapes effects of artificial light at night on the understudied light avoiding species R. ferrumequinum, eight maternity roosts were surveyed to explore the interaction between habitat features and street lighting. At each maternity roost, bat detectors were deployed at 25 paired street lit and dark locations. Street lighting had a significant negative effect on bat activity. Locations closest to the maternity roost had higher bat activity than those further away and road type had a significant effect on bat activity, with the highest bat activity recorded at minor roads compared with A and B roads. These results highlight the large negative impact street lighting can have on bat activity patterns and the need for mitigation. Several mitigation strategies have been suggested to combat the effects of artificial light at night but few have been tested. One of these suggestions is to restrict the hours of lighting through the night, often called part-night lighting. Part-night lighting has been implemented by many local authorities, often switching the lights off after midnight and switching them back on before dusk. To explore the effects of part night lighting on bats, the hourly patterns of activity for R. ferrumequinum were studied. Bat activity was bimodal, with a peak in the first few hours after sunset followed by a smaller peak before sunrise. To capture more than 50% of bat activity during the dark period of the night, street lights would be required to switch off before 11pm. To explore this further, a before-and-after study of part-night lighting was conducted at towns across Devon. Following the conversion from full-night lighting to part-night lighting, switching street lights off at 2 am, there was a significant reduction in P. pipistrellus and a significant increase for P. pygmaeus and Nyctalus noctule activity. Although part-night lighting is not often operational during peak activity periods for bat species, reducing the duration of lighting at night has impacts on activity patterns for several species. This thesis shows that artificial light at night has impacts on bats across the landscapes around their roosts. Artificial lighting has impacts for species in different ways, depending on whether they forage around street lights or avoid street lit areas. For species that avoid street lit areas such as R. ferrumequinum, street lighting can have very significant negative impacts on the availability of areas around their roosts. This highlights the need for conservation measures to reduce impacts of artificial lighting. Although mitigation schemes such as part-night lighting may help to minimize impacts of nighttime lighting, more tailored schemes for bats should devised to achieve greater conservation impacts.

The proposed thesis concerns in the study of tribosphenic molar, the key apomorphy of mammalian clade, mainly in structure and development of its enamel coat. As the main model species served us European vespertilionid bat Myotis myotis. The aims of this thesis are: (1) to describe structure and microstructure of enamel in tribosphenic molars in detail; (2) to compare it with unicuspid teeth of the same dentition; (3) to describe mineralization process and enamel maturation in insectivorous dentition; (4) to describe late odontogenesis in molars of insectivorous dentition and its interlacing with enamel maturation, and how they come to occlusion.