Absence of lunar phobia in European swarming vespertilionid bats

Abstract

Abstract “Lunar phobia” in bats has been widely discussed since its description in tropical bats in 1978. The phenomenon has been frequently contested and supported and was first reported in European bats in 2020. Our study seeks to clarify the debate by describing the relationship between the activity of selected swarming vespertilionid bats (Family: Vespertilionidae) and moonlight levels. To verify a potential connection to the latter, a swarming dataset was analysed in respect of estimated moonlight illumination. Moonlight estimates were based on geographical location and several lunar parameters, to accurately characterise the non-linear relationship between moon phase and illumination (lux). The swarming data consisted of 32 netting and 14 echolocation recording sessions collected between August and October 2014 and 2015. Our data included 3,265 netted bats from 13 species and 15,919 bat calls from 10 confirmed species. Data was collected at the large Central European hibernation/swarming site – Natura 2000 PLH080003 “Nietoperek” in western Poland (N 52.394400, E 15.480600). Generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs) determined insignificant relationships between bats and moonlight illumination. Our analysis confirms an absence of impact of moonlight intensity on swarming bats and thereby rejects the lunar phobia phenomena in at least six insectivorous bat species (Myotis myotis, M. daubentonii, M. nattereri, M. bechsteinii, Barbastella barbastellus, Plecotus auritus) swarming in the autumn.