Sex-biased dispersal and social systems of Emballonurid bats

My research mainly focusses on understanding the evolution of sex biased dispersal and social systems of mammals, particularly bats. Specifically, I am interested in how evolutionary factors like inbreeding avoidance, competition among close kin and cooperation interplay to shape sex-biased dispersal patterns and ultimately also the evolution of social behavior. I study bats of the family Emballonuridae, an insectivorous family that occurs in the subtropics and tropics of both the Old and New World. Emballonurids display an astonishing diversity of social and mating systems and have been shown to have dispersal patterns that are common in mammals (male-biased dispersal) but also exceptional female-biased dispersal. Thus, Emballonurids provide excellent study species to study the evolution of sex-biased dispersal in a comparative approach. I maintain long-term field studies of several Emballonurid species in Costa Rica, Panama and South Africa, following individually banded bats over the course of their reproductive lives and combine these behavioral studies with genetic paternity and kinship analyses as well as population genetics.

 

Mitigating bat mortality at wind turbines

(RENEBAT http://www.windbat.techfak.fau.de/forschung/)

Alarming numbers of bats are being killed at wind turbines worldwide. Thus, mitigation measures that can substantially reduce the number of bat fatalities with a low loss in energy production are crucial to maintain viable bat populations, and for the environmental-friendly development and public acceptance of wind energy. During the past years, I focused on developing and implementing bat friendly operation of wind turbines. The main achievements of the REBENAT projects are two statistical models, allowing the prediction of fatality rates and times of high collision risk for bats at a specific turbine based on easily measurable variables like e.g. bat activity and wind speed. The curtailment algorithms derived from these models have been experimentally shown to reliably and precisely reduce the risk of bat collisions to a predefined accepted yearly number of bat fatalities and are optimized to minimize the resulting loss in economic revenue. This approach has become the standard method for reducing bat fatalities at wind turbines in Germany and can be easily applied using the free software tool ProBat (http://www.windbat.techfak.fau.de/tools/index_en.shtml).

Knörnschild M, Blüml S, Steidl P, Eckenweber E, Nagy M (2017) Bat songs as acoustic beacons - male territorial songs attract dispersing females. Scientific Reports 7: 13918.

Günther L, Knörnschild M, Nagy* M, Mayer F* (2017) The evolution of a rare mammalian trait – benefits and costs of male philopatry in proboscis bats. Scientific Reports7: 15632. *joint senior authors.

Santos PSC, Courtiol A, Heidel AJ, Höner OP, Heckmann I, Nagy M, Mayer F, Platzer M, Voigt CC, Sommer S (2016) MHC-dependent mate choice is linked to a trace-amine-associated receptor gene in a mammal. Scientific Reports 6: 38490

Günther L, Lopez M, Knörnschild M, Reid K, Nagy* M, Mayer* F (2016) From resource to female defence: the impact of roosting ecology on a bat's mating strategy. Royal Society Open Science 3:11; * joint senior authors

Nagy M, Knörnschild M, Günther L, Mayer F (2014) Dispersal and social organization in the Neotropical Grey sac-winged bat Balantiopteryx plicata. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68:891-901

Greiner S, Nagy M, Mayer F, Knörnschild M, Hofer H, Voigt CC (2014) Sex-biased senescence in a polygynous bat species. Ethology 120: 187-205

Corman VM, Rasche A, Diallo TD, Cottontail VM, Stöcker S, de Carvalho Dominguez Souza BF, Corrêa JI, Carneiro AJB, Franke CR, Nagy M, Metz M, Knörnschild M, Kalko EKV, Ghanem SJ, Morales KDS, Salsamendi E, Spínola M, Herrler G, Voigt CC, Tschapka M, Drosten C, Drexler JF (2013) Highly diversified coronaviruses in neotropical bats. Journal of General Virology 94: 1984-1994.

Nagy M*, Günther L*, Knörnschild M, Mayer F (2013) Female-biased dispersal in a bat with a female-defence mating strategy. Molecular Ecology 22:1733-1745; joint first authors *

Nagy M, Knörnschild M, Voigt CC, Mayer F (2012) Male greater sac-winged bats gain direct fitness benefits when roosting in multimale colonies. Behavioural Ecology 23: 597-606

Knörnschild M, Jung K, Nagy M, Metz M, Kalko E (2012) Bat echolocation calls facilitate social communication. Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences 279:4827-4835

Knörnschild M, Nagy M, Metz M, Mayer F, von Helversen O (2012) Learned vocal group signatures in the polygynous bat Saccopteryx bilineata. Animal Behaviour 84:761-769

Nagy M, Ustinova J, Mayer F (2010) Characterization of eight novel microsatellite markers for the neotropical bat Rhynchonycteris naso and cross-species utility. Conservation Genetics Resources 2: 41-43

Knörnschild M, Nagy M, Metz M, Mayer F, von Helversen O. (2010) Complex Vocal Imitation during Ontogeny in a Bat. Biology Letters 6: 156-159

Voigt CC, Behr O, Caspers B, von Helversen O, Knörnschild M, Mayer F, Nagy M (2008) Songs, scents, and senses: sexual selection in the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata. Journal of Mammalogy 89: 1401-1410.

Nagy M, Heckel G, Voigt CC, Mayer F (2007) Female-biased dispersal and patrilocal kin groups in a mammal with resource-defence polygyny.Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274: 3019-3025

Behr O, von Helversen O, Heckel G, Nagy M, Voigt CC, Mayer F (2006) Territorial songs indicate male quality in the sac-winged bat Saccopteryx bilineata (Chiroptera, Emballonuridae). Behavioral Ecology 17: 810–817.

 

BOOK CHAPTERS, SOFTWARE

Behr O, Brinkmann R, Hochradel K, Mages J, Korner-Nievergelt F, Niermann I, Reich M, Simon R, Weber N, Nagy M (accepted) Mitigating bat mortality with turbine specific curtailment algorithms: a model based approach. In: CWW Conference Volume, Springer Press, NY.

Baumbauer L, Nagy M, Simon R, Behr O (2016) ProBat – A tool for calculating bat friendly operational algorithms. Requirements for the use of ProBat (http://www.windbat.techfak.fau.de/tools/)

Nagy M, Baumbauer L (2016) ProBat – A tool for calculating bat friendly operational algorithms. Manual (http://www.windbat.techfak.fau.de/tools/)

Simon R, Hochradel K, Mages J, Nagy M, Naucke A, Niermann I, Weber N, Behr (2016) Methoden akustischer Erfassung der Fledermausaktivität an Windenergieanlagen. In: Behr O, Nagy M, Simon R, Niermann I, Reich M, Brinkmann R (Hrsg): Reduktion des Kollisionsrisikos von Fledermäusen an Onshore-Windenergieanlagen - Umwelt und Raum

Behr O, Brinkmann R, Hochradel K, Korner-Nievergelt F, Naucke A, Mages J, Nagy M, Niermann I, Simon R, Weber N (2016). Akustische Erfassung der Fledermausaktivität an Windenergieanlagen. In: Behr O, Nagy M, Simon R, Niermann I, Reich M, Brinkmann R (Hrsg): Reduktion des Kollisionsrisikos von Fledermäusen an Onshore-Windenergieanlagen - Umwelt und Raum

Hochradel K, Adomeit U, Heinze N, Nagy M, Stiller F, Behr O (2016) Wärmeoptische 3D-Erfassung von Fledermäusen im Rotorbereich von Windenergieanlagen. In: Behr O, Nagy M, Simon R, Niermann I, Reich M, Brinkmann R (Hrsg): Reduktion des Kollisionsrisikos von Fledermäusen an Onshore-Windenergieanlagen - Umwelt und Raum

Behr O, Brinkmann R, Hochradel K, Hurst J, Mages J, Naucke A, Nagy M, Niermann I, Reers H, Simon R, Weber N, Korner-Nievergelt (2016) Experimenteller Test der fledermaus-freundlichen Betriebsalgorithmen. In: Behr O, Nagy M, Simon R, Niermann I, Reich M, Brinkmann R (Hrsg): Reduktion des Kollisionsrisikos von Fledermäusen an Onshore-Windenergieanlagen - Umwelt und Raum

Behr O, Simon R, Nagy M (2016) Leitfaden zur Durchführung einer akustischen Aktivitätserfassung an Windenergieanlagen und zur Berechnung fledermausfreundlicher Betriebsalgorithmen. In: Behr O, Nagy M, Simon R, Niermann I, Reich M, Brinkmann R (Hrsg): Reduktion des Kollisionsrisikos von Fledermäusen an Onshore-Windenergieanlagen - Umwelt und Raum

Nagy M, Knörnschild M (2016) Sex-biased dispersal and social systems of Neotropical Emballonurids. In: Sociality in Bats (J. Ortega, ed.). Springer Press, NY. Pp 47-63

Knörnschild M, Eckenweber M, Fernandez AA, Nagy M (2016) Sexually selected vocalizations of Neotropical bats. In: Sociality in Bats (J. Ortega, ed.). Springer Press, NY. Pp179-195