O’Donnell (2000): Cryptic local populations in a temperate rainforest bat Chalinolobus tuberculatus in New Zealand.

O’Donnell, C. F. J. 2000. Cryptic local populations in a temperate rainforest bat Chalinolobus tuberculatus in New Zealand. Animal Conservation 3: 287–297.

Long-tailed bats form long term non-random associations among individuals. Three distinct social groups (72–132 bats) were cryptic because foraging ranges overlapped, bats belonging to each group spread over many roosts each day, and these roost sites changed from day to day. Bats moved infrequently between groups (1.6% of recaptures), potentially linking the local population assemblages. Population structure did not conform to traditional metapopulation models because groups occurred in homogeneous habitat extending over a large area. Conservation of bat populations should entail protecting representative sub-groups, but development of models for predicting minimum number of effective local populations is still required.