habitat_narrative
Terrestrial
Miniopterus fraterculus is predominantly a temperate species with the core of its distribution in the montane grasslands of the South African escarpment (Monadjem et al. 2010). It is cave-dependent and hence the availability of suitable roosting sites is a critical factor in determining its distribution, but it occurs in a wide range of habitats from drier savannah bushveld to moister mistbelt and coastal forest habitats. Most localities in KwaZulu-Natal seem associated with major river valleys. Suitable cover can take the form of caves, overhangs, and unused mine and railway tunnels (Taylor 1998). For example, in KwaZulu-Natal, it has been found in damp sandstone caves, a solution cave of poorly consolidated glacio-fluvial boulder clay, a rocky overhang over a forest stream, a rock fissure, a railway tunnel as well as in unused mine adits (Taylor 1998). This species probably uses separate caves as winter hibernacula and summer maternity roosts, as in M. natalensis (Monadjem et al. 2010). It is a clutter-edge forager, feeding on a variety of aerial prey including Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and Coleoptera (Miller-Butterworth et al. 2005). This is the smallest of the three species of long-fingered bats occurring in the assessment region (Stoffberg et al. 2004; Skinner & Chimimba 2005).Ecosystem and cultural services: As this species is insectivorous, it may play an important role in controlling insect populations (Boyles et al. 2011; Kunz et al. 2011). Often, bats prey on the insect species that destroy crops (Boyles et al. 2011; Kunz et al. 2011). Ensuring a healthy population of insectivorous bats can result a decrease in the use of pesticides.
