| high manoeuvring costs force narrow-winged molossid bats to forage in open space. | molossid bats are specialised aerial-hawkers that, like their diurnal ecological counterparts, swallows and swifts, hunt for insects in open spaces. the long and narrow wings of molossids are considered energetically adapted to fast flight between resource patches, but less suited for manoeuvring in more confined spaces, such as between tree-tops or in forest gaps. to understand whether a potential increase in metabolic costs of manoeuvring excludes molossids from foraging in more confined space ... | 2012 | 22048527 |
| terrestrial locomotion imposes high metabolic requirements on bats. | the evolution of powered flight involved major morphological changes in chiroptera. nevertheless, all bats are also capable of crawling on the ground and some are even skilled sprinters. we asked if a highly derived morphology adapted for flapping flight imposes high metabolic requirements on bats when moving on the ground. we measured the metabolic rate during terrestrial locomotion in mastiff bats, molossus currentium, a species that is both a fast-flying aerial-hawking bat and an agile crawle ... | 2012 | 22972883 |