Search results for "Chiroptera"

Body weight provides insights into the feeding strategy of swarming bats.

2010

Temperate bat species that hibernate in underground sites are known to visit hibernacula in late summer where they perform an activity known as "swarming". We analysed trends in body mass-to-forearm ratio - the body condition index (BCI) - to investigate whether bats arrive at swarming sites following intensive nocturnal feeding. In a two-year study, Myotis daubentonii, M. brandtii and M. dasycneme were captured by mist-net at one swarming site from late July until early October. In late summer, the BCIs of captured males, females and subadult bats were positively correlated to the time of their capture during the night. In September, adult bats had higher BCIs than in late summer and the B…

Contrasting Effects of Chronic Anthropogenic Disturbance on Activity and Species Richness of Insectivorous Bats in Neotropical Dry Forest

2022

For prioritizing conservation actions, it is vital to understand how ecologically diverse species respond to environmental change caused by human activity. This is particularly necessary considering that chronic human disturbance is a threat to biodiversity worldwide. Depending on how species tolerate and adapt to such disturbance, ecological integrity and ecosystem services will be more or less affected. Bats are a species-rich and functionally diverse group, with important roles in ecosystems, and are therefore recognized as a good model group for assessing the impact of environmental change. Their populations have decreased in several regions, especially in the tropics, and are threatene…

Composition and structure of helminth communities in two populations of Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from Spain

2001

The community composition and structure of helminths of Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Schreber, 1774) from two widely separated Spanish localities, El Saler (n = 42) and the San Pedro pothole (n = 34), were determined and compared. Five species of trematodes, Plagiorchis (Plagiorchis) sp., Lecithodendrium (Lecithodendrium) linstowi Dollfus, 1931, Prosthodendrium (Prosthodendrium) sp., Pycnoporus heteroporus (Dujardin, 1845) and Parabascus semisquamosus (Braun, 1900), and one species of cestode, Hymenolepis pipistrelli López-Neyra, 1941, were found. The two bat populations harboured the same helminth species and showed the same trematode dominance, but the most important differences between the…

Diet of the insectivorous bat 'Pipistrellus nathusii' during autumn migration and summer residence

2013

Migration is widespread among vertebrates, yet bat migration has received little attention and only in the recent decades has a better understanding of it been gained. Migration can cause significant changes in behaviour and physiology, due to increasing energy demands and aerodynamic constraints. Dietary shifts, for example, have been shown to occur in birds before onset of migration. For bats, it is not known if a change in diet occurs during migration, although breeding season–related dietary preference has been documented. It is known that a diet rich in fats and the accumulation of fat deposits do increase the flight range of migratory bats. Some bat species can be regarded as long-dis…

Molecular detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum DNA in the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) guano

2018

AbstractAlthough bats are increasingly recognised as potential reservoir hosts of human zoonotic pathogens, bacteria in bats are still poorly studied. To investigate the DNA faecal prevalence of the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum, we sampled 23 lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) maternity colonies located in buildings (churches, barns) in rural villages of eastern France. A total of 552 faecal samples were collected from 278 individuals. Anaplasma phagocytophilum DNA was detected in the faeces of 63 individuals (22.7%). Such high prevalence might suggest persistent infection in bats and/or a frequent consumption of insect preys carrying bacteria. Faecal DNA prevalence vari…

Late Quaternary changes in bat palaeobiodiversity and palaeobiogeography under climatic and anthropogenic pressure: new insights from Marie-Galante, …

2016

25 pages; International audience; Data on Lesser Antillean Late Quaternary fossil bat assemblages remains limited, leading to their general exclusion from studies focusing on Caribbean bat palaeobiodiversity and palaeobiogeography. Additionally, the role of climatic versus human pressure driving changes in faunal communities remains poorly understood. Here we describe a fossil bat assemblage from Blanchard Cave on Marie-Galante in the Lesser Antilles, which produced numerous bat remains from a well-dated, stratified context. Our study reveals the occurrence of at least 12 bat species during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene on Marie-Galante, whereas only eight species are currently kn…

Nietoperze Chiroptera: estywacja, hibernacja, torpor

2021

Wahania temperatury otoczenia i obniżona wilgotność powodują u wielu zwierząt, w t u nietoperzy, stres fizjologiczny. Jego następstwem jest spadęk temperatury ciała, czyli hipotermia adaptacyjna. c aktywacja mechanizmu odrętwienia. Stany odrętwienia mogą być wywoływane przez różne czynniki: najcz ęście . to zmiany temperatury, brak pożywienia, światła i fotoperiodyzm, poziom tlenu lub dwutlenku węgla w organizn Minimalizacji ulega także wrażliwość osobnika na bodźce zewnętrzne. Stan odrętwienia u nietoperzy może podzielić na podkategońe. Wyróżniamy takie stany aktywności sezonowych zwierząt, jak: hibernacja, estywa torpor. Zjawisko heterotermii dotyczy wszystkich gatunków nietoperzy, które …

The role of swarming sites for maintaining gene flow in the brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus)

2004

Bat-swarming sites where thousands of individuals meet in late summer were recently proposed as 'hot spots' for gene flow among populations. If, due to female philopatry, nursery colonies are genetically differentiated, and if males and females of different colonies meet at swarming sites, then we would expect lower differentiation of maternally inherited genetic markers among swarming sites and higher genetic diversity within. To test these predictions, we compared genetic variance from three swarming sites to 14 nursery colonies. We analysed biparentally (five nuclear and one sex-linked microsatellite loci) and maternally (mitochondrial D-loop, 550 bp) inherited molecular markers. Three m…

The active venous pulse in the wing circulation of bats (Chiroptera). A contribution to comparative angiology.

1978

Experienced Migratory Bats Integrate the Sun's Position at Dusk for Navigation at Night.

2019

Summary From bats to whales, millions of mammals migrate every year. However, their navigation capacity for accomplishing long-distance movements remains remarkably understudied and lags behind by five decades compared to other animals [ 1 , 2 ]—partly because, unlike for other taxa, such as birds and sea turtles, no small-scale orientation assay has so far been developed. Yet recently, bats became a model to investigate which cues mammals use for long-range navigation, and, surprisingly for nocturnal animals, sunset cues, and particularly polarized-light cues, appear to be crucial for calibration of the magnetic-compass system in non-migratory bats [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. This does not appear to ho…