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Like dispersal and migration, short-term movement between roosts or dens is potentially costly. If such behavior is adaptive, these costs should be balanced by benefits associated with moving. The Chiroptera is an excellent group in which to investigate the costs and benefits of such movements because roost fidelity is variable among species of bats. Reviewing the fidelity of 43 species of bats, I found that 25 frequently change roosts, 14 rarely change, and 4 show intraspecific variability in fidelity. A comparative analysis that controlled for phylogeny demonstrated that fidelity is related to the type of roost occupied: high fidelity is directly related to roost permanency and inversely related to roost availability. Lability may result from trade-offs between the benefits of fidelity (e.g., greater site familiarity, maintenance of social relationships, and retention of roosts particularly suited for raising offspring) versus those of lability (e.g., decreased commuting costs to foraging areas, familiarity with several roosts that differ in microclimate, lower probability of predator detection, and lower ectoparasite levels).
Susan E. Lewis (Fri,) studied this question.