Publications by authors named "Domhnall Finch"
Bats play a pivotal role in pest control, pollination and seed dispersal. Despite their ecological significance, locating bat roosts remains a challenging task for ecologists. Traditional field surveys are time-consuming, expensive and may disturb sensitive bat populations.
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- Bats play a crucial role in agricultural ecosystems, yet their foraging and commuting patterns along linear features compared to open fields are not well understood.
- As part of a citizen science initiative, bat detectors were set up in agricultural fields and along various linear features to assess bat activity.
- Findings revealed that bats were more active along linear features than in field centers, emphasizing the significance of managing these areas for bat conservation while also considering field centers in environmental surveys.
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- Artificial light at night (ALAN) may negatively affect various wildlife, but its impact on non-bat nocturnal mammals, like European hedgehogs, is not well understood.
- A citizen science project utilized camera traps at 33 UK gardens to evaluate hedgehog activity under conditions of artificial light and darkness over two one-week periods.
- The study found inconsistent changes in hedgehog activity due to lighting, with no overall negative impact on their presence or feeding, suggesting that hedgehogs may adapt to supplementary feeding in lit environments, but further long-term research is needed to explore additional effects.
Increasing levels of road noise are creating new anthropogenic soundscapes that may affect wildlife globally. Bats, which form about a third of all mammal species, are sensitive bioindicators, and may be particularly vulnerable because of their dependency on echolocation. Here we present the first controlled field experiment with free-living bats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is often difficult to compare studies examining the effects of endectocides on dung fauna because of different experimental approaches, for example, active ingredients (eprinomectin, doramectin, ivermectin, moxidectin) and formulations (injectable, pour-on, spiked). To gain a better understanding, we performed a quantitative meta-analysis using 22 studies to assess the overall effect of endectocide residues on the occurrence (presence or absence) and abundance of aphodiine dung beetles. Our results document a positive effect on the occurrence of adult beetles, indicating that adults tend to be attracted to dung with residues.
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