Does the diet of an opportunistic raptor, the tawny owl Strix aluco, reflect long-term changes in bat abundance?: A test in Central Poland

The hypothesis tested concerned whether the diet of the tawny owl Strix aluco, as an opportunistic predator, does reflect increases in the density of bat populations in the owl's hunting areas. In our study area, there was a mass use of toxic pesticides during which numbers of bats declined drastically, after which recoveries in the populations of most European species occurred. Thus, in Poland, numbers of bats reached their lowest levels in the 1980s. We examined the diets of tawny owls in Warsaw and the adjacent Kampinos Forest of central Poland, based on the remains of 9142 prey items. Bat specimens were found to comprise the following percentages of all vertebrate prey items: 1976-1989: 0 03-0.14% 1990-1999: 0.32-0.40%, and 2000-2007: 0.54-1.71%. It the share by bats among mammalian prey is in turn considered, the analogous figures are 0.09-0.17%, 0.45-0.99% and 0.92-3.26%. Patterns in owl diets were consistent with trends in bat numbers at 15 large winter roosts located some 10-50 km from the study area in 1989-2006.