Home Range and Movement of the Ghost Bat ( Macroderma gigas ) in the Katherine Region, Northern Territory

ABSTRACT Understanding the impact of human activities on wildlife is challenging if we do not comprehend how species move through the landscape. This study presents the home range and movement parameters of a threatened species, the ghost bat ( Macroderma gigas ), in an anthropogenically altered landscape. Data on the performance of the Global Positioning System (GPS) tags that were attached to bats are also presented. In 2022, ghost bats were captured in two conservation reserves near the town of Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, over two reproductive seasons: mating and maternity. Forty‐nine ghost bats were captured; of those, 44 were tagged using 32 GPS/VHF tags and a dataset of 521 fixes was obtained. Autocorrelated kernel density estimation (AKDE) was used to establish individual short‐term home (95% AKDE) and core (50% AKDE) ranges. In addition, population ranges were derived using data pooled by sex and season at each reserve in a traditional kernel density estimator. Overlap in home ranges, as well as movement parameters, were also determined. The size of short‐term home and core home ranges varied by sex and reproductive season. On average, individuals travelled 14.7 km (±SE 808 m) per night, with females (17.0 km ± 805 m) travelling further than males (12.2 km ± 642 m). The distance from an individual's trapping site to the geographic centre of its foraging area averaged 6.3 km (±695 m), with this being greater for females than males. This is the first study using GPS tracking tags on ghost bats in the Northern Territory and only the third published for the species. Our insights on the performance of GPS tags are relevant to researchers of other cave‐dwelling species, while our results on home range and movement parameters have implications for conservation of the ghost bat.