The habitat association of bats in the South Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada: Radar-acoustic surveys to assess the use of vineyards by insectivorous bats (Vespertilionidae)

British Columbia’s South Okanagan has an expanding wine industry and supports the greatest diversity of bats in Canada. I surveyed bat activity in six matched pairs of vineyards and adjacent natural sagebrush habitats during the summer of 2013 using a unique radar-acoustic system, which I described and evaluated. By evaluating the characteristics of radar tracks and combining radar and acoustic data, I was able to compare bat activity over the habitats. Target parameters (height, speed, and relative size measured as Signal-to-Noise Ratio) had similar distributions in both habitats. There was no statistical difference between habitats in mean target track length per unit area or in the mean number of acoustic ‘individual bat passes’, nor did these measures differ between surveys in early (bat pregnancy and parturition), middle (lactation) and late summer (pup fledging). My results suggest that the amount of bat activity over vineyards and natural habitats is similar; however the use of habitat by bat species differs.