Free-ranging Van Gelder’s bat Bauerus dubiaquercus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) preying on dung beetles in southern Mexico
-
Pedro A. Aguilar-Rodríguez
,
Aline Méndez-Rodríguez
,
M. Cristina MacSwiney G.
and
Yossi Yovel
Abstract
We report the first prey species consumed by the free-ranging Van Gelder’s bat Bauerus dubiaquercus. We trapped four pregnant individuals of this species carrying freshly captured dung beetles. We describe the wing morphology and flight descriptors (wing loading and wing aspect ratio) of the species, which presents wings more suitable for capturing insects by aerial hawking, although the evidence suggests that is able to capture dung beetles of nearly 10% of its body mass in flight close to the ground. The species could obtain their prey while foraging on uncluttered pasture near forest edges.
Funding source: Tel Aviv University
Acknowledgements
We thank Tel Aviv University for post-doctoral fellowships to PAAR. Also, Martín Alarcón, Pedro Díaz, Benigno Absalón, Israel González, and Jonathan Alvarado for their help in the field, and Zanni Hernández-Pérez for producing Figure 1.
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Author contributions: All the authors contributed equally to this manuscript and approved submission.
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Research funding: Post-doctoral fellowships “The George S. Wise Fund” from Tel Aviv University.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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Research ethics: The authors used the Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales permit (SGPA/DGVS/003071/18) for capturing individuals. No voucher specimens were collected.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Ecology
- Factors influencing the success of capturing European brown bears with foot snares
- First tracking of an eastern spotted skunk litter from birth to independence
- A snapshot of rodents and shrews of agroecosystems in Ethiopian highlands using camera traps
- First photographic record of albinism in Baiomys taylori (Rodentia: Cricetidae)
- First record for a partial Isabelline colouration in a European mole, Talpa europaea, from Central Italy
- The natural history of the Stenodermatinae Chiroderma doriae vizottoi Taddei and Lim 2010 (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) in a semiarid region from Brazil
- Free-ranging Van Gelder’s bat Bauerus dubiaquercus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) preying on dung beetles in southern Mexico
- First report of albinism in a lactating female of the chestnut long-tongued bat Lionycteris spurrelli Thomas, 1913 (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae)
- Fruits consumed by phyllostomid bats in a Peruvian Yungas forest: new dietary items for Chiroderma salvini and Lonchophylla handleyi
- Conservation
- Distribution of introduced American mink in the Northern Apennine area (Central Italy)
- A re-discovery of Coelops frithii (Chiroptera, Hipposideridae) from its type locality after one and a half century
- Ethology
- Vocalizations of the Sepia short-tailed Opossum Monodelphis adusta (Thomas, 1897, Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae)
- Evolutionary Biology
- Sexual size dimorphism and geographic variation in forearm length of Rafinesque’s Big-eared Bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii) and Southeastern Myotis (Myotis austroriparius)
- Dental formula variations in wild and domestic Sus scrofa: is the first premolar agenesis an evolutionary trend?
- Taxonomy/Phylogeny
- Morphological and molecular confirmation of the common pipistrelle bat, Pipistrellus pipistrellus Schreber, 1774 (Vespertilionidae: Chiroptera), in Xinjiang, China
- Discovery of Kerivoula kachinensis and a validity of K. titania (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in China
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Ecology
- Factors influencing the success of capturing European brown bears with foot snares
- First tracking of an eastern spotted skunk litter from birth to independence
- A snapshot of rodents and shrews of agroecosystems in Ethiopian highlands using camera traps
- First photographic record of albinism in Baiomys taylori (Rodentia: Cricetidae)
- First record for a partial Isabelline colouration in a European mole, Talpa europaea, from Central Italy
- The natural history of the Stenodermatinae Chiroderma doriae vizottoi Taddei and Lim 2010 (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) in a semiarid region from Brazil
- Free-ranging Van Gelder’s bat Bauerus dubiaquercus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) preying on dung beetles in southern Mexico
- First report of albinism in a lactating female of the chestnut long-tongued bat Lionycteris spurrelli Thomas, 1913 (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae)
- Fruits consumed by phyllostomid bats in a Peruvian Yungas forest: new dietary items for Chiroderma salvini and Lonchophylla handleyi
- Conservation
- Distribution of introduced American mink in the Northern Apennine area (Central Italy)
- A re-discovery of Coelops frithii (Chiroptera, Hipposideridae) from its type locality after one and a half century
- Ethology
- Vocalizations of the Sepia short-tailed Opossum Monodelphis adusta (Thomas, 1897, Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae)
- Evolutionary Biology
- Sexual size dimorphism and geographic variation in forearm length of Rafinesque’s Big-eared Bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii) and Southeastern Myotis (Myotis austroriparius)
- Dental formula variations in wild and domestic Sus scrofa: is the first premolar agenesis an evolutionary trend?
- Taxonomy/Phylogeny
- Morphological and molecular confirmation of the common pipistrelle bat, Pipistrellus pipistrellus Schreber, 1774 (Vespertilionidae: Chiroptera), in Xinjiang, China
- Discovery of Kerivoula kachinensis and a validity of K. titania (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in China
