Blindness in echolocating bats

Anderson Feijó; Hannah Nunes; Emmanuel Messias Vilar; Patrício Adriano da Rocha

doi:10.1515/mammalia-2018-0034

Article

Blindness in echolocating bats

Anderson Feijó , Hannah Nunes , Emmanuel Messias Vilar and Patrício Adriano da Rocha

Published/Copyright: July 27, 2018

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From the journal Mammalia Volume 83 Issue 3

Abstract

Vision in echolocating bats works complementary to their echolocation signals and is especially important in long-range orientation. Contrary to previous predictions, we report here the first case of blindness and ocular anomalies in healthy adult echolocating bats. Two anomalous individuals of Carollia perspicillata, two Artibeus planirostris and one Artibeus lituratus were captured in highly human-modified areas (urban and agricultural). One C. perspicillata was totally blind exhibiting completely closed eyelids and the others presented strong corneal opacity in their right eye. Our finding brings new insights about the habitat perception in mammals and suggests an unreported ecological compensation of the sensory system in bats.

Keywords: Chiroptera; environment perception; neotropical bats; sensory system; vision

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Guilherme Siniciato T. Garbino and Noé U. de la Sancha for their helpful comments on early versions of the manuscript, and Ricardo Silveira Filho, Felipe Jardelino Eloi, Jeanneson Silva, Fabrício Furni and Derick Lima for field work assistance. This work was partially supported by CAPES and by the Programa Pesquisa para o SUS (Grant number EFP_00008705). AF is supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative (grant no. 2018PB0040).

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Received: 2018-02-28

Accepted: 2018-07-05

Published Online: 2018-07-27

Published in Print: 2019-05-27

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2018-0034

Keywords for this article

Chiroptera; environment perception; neotropical bats; sensory system; vision