Phyllostomid bat community structure and abundance in two contrasting tropical dry forests

Although tropical wet Forests are generally more diverse than dry forests for man), faunal groups, few studies have compared bat diversity among dry forests. I compared ground level phyllostomid bat community structure between two tropical dry forests with different precipitation regimes. Parque National Palo Verde in northwestern Costa Rica represents one of the wettest tropical dry forests (rainfall 1.5 m/yr), whereas the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve Oil the Pacific coast of central Mexico represents one of the driest (750 mm/yr). Mist net sampling was conducted at the two Study sites to compare changes ill ground level phyllostomid bat community structure between regions and seasons. Palo Verde was more diverse than Chamela and phyllostomid species showed low similarity between sites (Classic jaccard = 0.263). The distinct phyllostomid communities observed at these two dry Forest sites demonstrates that variants of tropical dry forest can be sufficiently different in structure and composition to affect phyllostomid communities. At both dry forest sites, abundance of the two most common foraging guilds (frugivores and nectarivores) differed between seasons, with greatest numbers of individuals captured coinciding with highest chiropterophilic resource abundance.