The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) reduces its body mass during winter in a tropical montane ecosystem of central Mexico
Abstract
Most animals face changes in the availability of food and the environmental conditions in the places where they live. In response, they need to adjust their behavioral, physiological, and morphological traits. In temperate zones and high latitudes, bats increase their body mass (M b ) in autumn to store fat reserves and use them during hibernation. However, other small mammals decrease their M b prior to winter to reduce the energetic requirements of individuals. These changes are unknown for bats inhabiting other highly energetic demanding environments. We measured changes in M b of 84 non-reproductive males of Eptesicus fuscus inhabiting a tropical montane ecosystem in central Mexico over seasons. We also examined the relationship of bats’ M b with the minimum ambient temperature (T a , °C) and mean precipitation (mm). Bats presented an increase in M b from March to June, followed by a decrease from September to November and presented the lowest M b from November to March, in the dry-cold season. The results suggest that the pattern of changes in M b could be the result of two non-exclusive components related to the bats’ energy budget, the energetic demands experienced by the bats throughout the year and the morphological adaptations animals could display to reduce their energy requirements during the winter.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank all the students that were involved in data collection, Justin Overstreet for reviewing the language of the manuscript, two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor for their comments and suggestions, and La Malinche biological station for logistical support.
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Author contributions: The three authors conceived the idea, acquired and processed data and wrote the manuscript.
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Research funding: No funding was received for the development of this work.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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Research ethics: Bat captures were performed under the permission of the Department of Wildlife Management granted to our institution (SEMARNAT 07019; SGPA/DGVS/00582/20).
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Conservation
- Giant pangolin and white-bellied pangolin observations from a World Heritage site
- Ecology
- Spatiotemporal overlap between Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus tianschanicus) and sympatric mammalian species on Jeju Island, South Korea
- A comparison of summer insectivory among four sympatric mesocarnivores on Izushima, a small island in northern Japan
- Feeding ecology of Massoutiera mzabi (Rodentia, Ctenodactylidae) in two national parks of Central Sahara
- Change in the composition of cave-dwelling bats after a 53-year interval at the Gruta do Limoeiro (Espírito Santo, Brazil)
- The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) reduces its body mass during winter in a tropical montane ecosystem of central Mexico
- Natural history of the fishing bat Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae) in the Gulf of Mexico
- Biogeography
- First camera-trap evidence of banded civet Hemigalus derbyanus (Mammalia: Carnivora: Viverridae) in Myanmar
- Porcupines in Italian islands: update on the distribution of Hystrix cristata in Sardinia
- Ethology
- Associative colour learning and discrimination in the South African Cape rock sengi Elephantulus edwardii (Macroscelidea, Afrotheria, Mammalia)
- Taxonomy/Phylogeny
- A new species of jupati, genus Metachirus Burmeister 1854 (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) for the Brazilian Amazon
- The prevalence of vestigial teeth in two beaked whale species from the North Atlantic
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Conservation
- Giant pangolin and white-bellied pangolin observations from a World Heritage site
- Ecology
- Spatiotemporal overlap between Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus tianschanicus) and sympatric mammalian species on Jeju Island, South Korea
- A comparison of summer insectivory among four sympatric mesocarnivores on Izushima, a small island in northern Japan
- Feeding ecology of Massoutiera mzabi (Rodentia, Ctenodactylidae) in two national parks of Central Sahara
- Change in the composition of cave-dwelling bats after a 53-year interval at the Gruta do Limoeiro (Espírito Santo, Brazil)
- The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) reduces its body mass during winter in a tropical montane ecosystem of central Mexico
- Natural history of the fishing bat Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae) in the Gulf of Mexico
- Biogeography
- First camera-trap evidence of banded civet Hemigalus derbyanus (Mammalia: Carnivora: Viverridae) in Myanmar
- Porcupines in Italian islands: update on the distribution of Hystrix cristata in Sardinia
- Ethology
- Associative colour learning and discrimination in the South African Cape rock sengi Elephantulus edwardii (Macroscelidea, Afrotheria, Mammalia)
- Taxonomy/Phylogeny
- A new species of jupati, genus Metachirus Burmeister 1854 (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) for the Brazilian Amazon
- The prevalence of vestigial teeth in two beaked whale species from the North Atlantic