Startseite Natural history of the fishing bat Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae) in the Gulf of Mexico
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Natural history of the fishing bat Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae) in the Gulf of Mexico

  • Sandra M. Ospina-Garcés ORCID logo , Livia León-Paniagua ORCID logo , Pedro A. Aguilar-Rodríguez ORCID logo und M. Cristina MacSwiney G. ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 20. Dezember 2022
Mammalia
Aus der Zeitschrift Mammalia Band 87 Heft 2

Abstract

We report feeding behaviour, dates of peak reproduction, and sexual size dimorphism of the fishing bat, Noctilio leporinus, in the Gulf of Mexico. For the first time we document the size of cheek pouches in N. leporinus and fish species consumed in the water bodies of southern Mexico and analyse differences in wing morphology and biomechanical flight descriptors between the sexes. We found sexual dimorphism in size for most of the external measurements but not in wing characters. This species can consume prey up to a third of its size. We confirmed the presence of N. leporinus in localities in Tabasco, Mexico 60 years after the first report.

Keywords: feeding behaviour; fishing bats; piscivory; sexual dimorphism; wing morphology
Corresponding author: M. Cristina MacSwiney G., Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana, José María Morelos No. 44 y 46. Col. Centro, C.P. 91000, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, E-mail:

Funding source: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología México

Funding source: Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Funding source: Universidad Veracruzana

Acknowledgments

We thank Allam Humberto Tzab, Iván Cabrera-Campos, Miguel Ángel Pérez-Farrera, Pedro Díaz Jiménez, José Padilla Vega, Rafael Avila and his team for their help in the field. We thank Lynna Marie Kiere for her help improving this manuscript.

  1. Author contributions: SMOG and MCMG designed this study; SMOG, LLP, MCMG, PAAR collected the data; SMOG performed the analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors have read, contributed, edited, and agreed to the final draft of the manuscript.

  2. Research funding: Post-doctoral fellowships from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología México, Post-doctoral fellowship from Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (DGAPA), and the Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

  4. Research ethics: The authors used a collecting permit (SGPA/DGVS/003071/18) issued by the Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2022-0098).

Received: 2022-08-23
Accepted: 2022-11-29
Published Online: 2022-12-20
Published in Print: 2023-03-28

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Conservation
  3. Giant pangolin and white-bellied pangolin observations from a World Heritage site
  4. Ecology
  5. Spatiotemporal overlap between Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus tianschanicus) and sympatric mammalian species on Jeju Island, South Korea
  6. A comparison of summer insectivory among four sympatric mesocarnivores on Izushima, a small island in northern Japan
  7. Feeding ecology of Massoutiera mzabi (Rodentia, Ctenodactylidae) in two national parks of Central Sahara
  8. Change in the composition of cave-dwelling bats after a 53-year interval at the Gruta do Limoeiro (Espírito Santo, Brazil)
  9. The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) reduces its body mass during winter in a tropical montane ecosystem of central Mexico
  10. Natural history of the fishing bat Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae) in the Gulf of Mexico
  11. Biogeography
  12. First camera-trap evidence of banded civet Hemigalus derbyanus (Mammalia: Carnivora: Viverridae) in Myanmar
  13. Porcupines in Italian islands: update on the distribution of Hystrix cristata in Sardinia
  14. Ethology
  15. Associative colour learning and discrimination in the South African Cape rock sengi Elephantulus edwardii (Macroscelidea, Afrotheria, Mammalia)
  16. Taxonomy/Phylogeny
  17. A new species of jupati, genus Metachirus Burmeister 1854 (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) for the Brazilian Amazon
  18. The prevalence of vestigial teeth in two beaked whale species from the North Atlantic
https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2022-0098
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
feeding behaviour; fishing bats; piscivory; sexual dimorphism; wing morphology

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Conservation
  3. Giant pangolin and white-bellied pangolin observations from a World Heritage site
  4. Ecology
  5. Spatiotemporal overlap between Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus tianschanicus) and sympatric mammalian species on Jeju Island, South Korea
  6. A comparison of summer insectivory among four sympatric mesocarnivores on Izushima, a small island in northern Japan
  7. Feeding ecology of Massoutiera mzabi (Rodentia, Ctenodactylidae) in two national parks of Central Sahara
  8. Change in the composition of cave-dwelling bats after a 53-year interval at the Gruta do Limoeiro (Espírito Santo, Brazil)
  9. The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) reduces its body mass during winter in a tropical montane ecosystem of central Mexico
  10. Natural history of the fishing bat Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae) in the Gulf of Mexico
  11. Biogeography
  12. First camera-trap evidence of banded civet Hemigalus derbyanus (Mammalia: Carnivora: Viverridae) in Myanmar
  13. Porcupines in Italian islands: update on the distribution of Hystrix cristata in Sardinia
  14. Ethology
  15. Associative colour learning and discrimination in the South African Cape rock sengi Elephantulus edwardii (Macroscelidea, Afrotheria, Mammalia)
  16. Taxonomy/Phylogeny
  17. A new species of jupati, genus Metachirus Burmeister 1854 (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) for the Brazilian Amazon
  18. The prevalence of vestigial teeth in two beaked whale species from the North Atlantic
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