RESUMO
Mist nets are one of the most widely used techniques in the study of birds and bats worldwide. However, a number of risks are involved, including opportunistic predation. Given this potential cost, here we: (1) review the global literature to understand the factors that might contribute to predation risk for birds and bats captured in mist nets; (2) review existing guidelines for best practice use of mist nets; and (3) based on our reviews, recommend new guidelines for the use of mist nets to minimize the risk of opportunistic predation. Based on keyword in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and using Google Scholar, Scopus, SciElo, and Web of Science, we found 48 articles reporting opportunistic predation. In the included articles, 178 predation events, involving 52 predator and 84 prey species, were reported. In most of the reports, the mist nets were placed at ground level, the bats and birds were preyed on from the shelf closest to the ground, the mist-net checks occurred at intervals of 1 h or 30 min and the most common predators were arboreal and scansorial species (primates and marsupials). Despite the occurrences of predation in 13 countries, guidelines for best practice mist-net use were found in only three, despite extensive searches and contact with key people in each country. Based on the existing guidelines and our results, we recommend that mist nets be fixed with the lowest shelf at least 50 cm above ground level and be checked at 15-min intervals; when predators are observed near mist nets, the nets either be constantly observed, closed, or relocated; suppressed the vegetation around the mist nets; captured animals be removed from the mist nets as soon as possible, and more than one researcher/technician should be in the field at all times.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: A new coccidian species of the genus Eimeria Schneider, 1875 (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae), is reported from the bat host Myotis riparius Handley from Ilha Grande, a large island off the coast of the State of Rio de Janeiro, in southeastern Brazil. METHODS: Bats were captured in 13 mist nets (10 × 3 m), which were set within the experimental plots, and through active searches of the daytime roosts of Molossus molossus Pallas found in Vila Dois Rios. Containment was made in bags for the collection of feces and identification of coccidia. A survey was conducted on the coccidia species described so far (Table 2). RESULTS: The oöcysts of Eimeria riparii n. sp. are ellipsoidal to cylindroidal with an extremely thin, bi-layered wall, slightly rough. Two polar granules are present, micropyle and oöcyst residuum are both absent. The sporocysts are ellipsoidal, the sporocyst residuum is formed by sparse, rounded granules of varying sizes; the Stieda body is trapezoidal and a sub-Stieda body is absent. Sporozoites are banana shaped. With the new species described here, a total of 40 Eimeria spp. have been described infecting bat hosts, belonging to 30 species of 18 genera and 5 families. CONCLUSION: The subsequent increase in the known diversity of bats has been derived from the ongoing expansion of research in a number of different areas of taxonomy and ecology although the number of studies of the associated coccidian parasites of the family Eimeriidae has increased more slowly.
