Foraging ecology of bats in forests

Bats have a greater diversity of behavior, diet, and morphology than any other mammalian order. As the primary predators of nocturnal insects, bats play a significant role in all forested ecosystems (Fenton 2003). Despite the importance of bats in forests, the information on foraging behavior for many species in North America is limited. This dearth of information exists because bats are difficult to study and many techniques and methods, developed to assess habitat use and behavior in other mammalian species, are simply not suitable for the study of nocturnal flying mammals (Kunz 1988a).