| food niche overlap among neotropical frugivorous bats in costa rica. | food habits of 15 species of frugivorous bats were studied at la selva biological station, costa rica. eight hundred and fifty-four (854) fecal samples and 169 samples from fruit parts and seeds discarded by bats beneath feeding roosts were analyzed. during eight months of study, 47 fruit species consumed by bats were identified. five plant genera (cecropia, ficus, piper solanum, and vismia) constituted 85% of all plants found in fecal samples. feeding niche breadth differed significantly among ... | 2007 | 18457139 |
| drinking and flying: does alcohol consumption affect the flight and echolocation performance of phyllostomid bats? | in the wild, frugivorous and nectarivorous bats often eat fermenting fruits and nectar, and thus may consume levels of ethanol that could induce inebriation. to understand if consumption of ethanol by bats alters their access to food and general survival requires examination of behavioural responses to its ingestion, as well as assessment of interspecific variation in those responses. we predicted that bats fed ethanol would show impaired flight and echolocation behaviour compared to bats fed co ... | 2010 | 20126552 |
| development and characterization of fourteen novel microsatellite markers for the chestnut short-tailed fruit bat (carollia castanea), and cross-amplification to related species. | rapid anthropogenic land use change threatens the primary habitat of the chestnut short-tailed bat (carollia castanea) throughout much of its range. information on population genetic structure can inform management strategies for this widespread frugivorous bat, and effective protection of c. castanea will also benefit the more than 20 mutualistic plant species of which this bat is the primary seed disperser. to facilitate understanding of population genetic structure in this species, fourteen n ... | 2016 | 27688969 |
| potential sympatric vectors and mammalian hosts of venezuelan equine encephalitis virus in southern mexico. | arboviruses are important zoonotic agents with complex transmission cycles and are not well understood because they may involve many vectors and hosts. we studied sympatric wild mammals and hematophagous mosquitoes having the potential to act as hosts and vectors in two areas of southern mexico. mosquitoes, bats, and rodents were captured in calakmul (campeche) and montes azules (chiapas), between november 2010 and august 2011. spleen samples from 146 bats and 14 rodents were tested for molecula ... | 2017 | 28384059 |
| tropical secondary forest management influences frugivorous bat composition, abundance and fruit consumption in chiapas, mexico. | most studies on frugivorous bat assemblages in secondary forests have concentrated on differences among successional stages, and have disregarded the effect of forest management. secondary forest management practices alter the vegetation structure and fruit availability, important factors associated with differences in frugivorous bat assemblage structure, and fruit consumption and can therefore modify forest succession. our objective was to elucidate factors (forest structural variables and fru ... | 2013 | 24147029 |
| 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 |
| rain increases the energy cost of bat flight. | similar to insects, birds and pterosaurs, bats have evolved powered flight. but in contrast to other flying taxa, only bats are furry. here, we asked whether flight is impaired when bat pelage and wing membranes get wet. we studied the metabolism of short flights in carollia sowelli, a bat that is exposed to heavy and frequent rainfall in neotropical rainforests. we expected bats to encounter higher thermoregulatory costs, or to suffer from lowered aerodynamic properties when pelage and wing mem ... | 2011 | 21543394 |