The flight membranes of bats serve a number of physiological functions important for survival. Although flight membrane injuries are commonly observed in wild-caught bats, in most cases the damage heals completely. Previous studies examining wound healing in the flight membranes of bats have not taken into consideration energy constraints that could influence healing times. Wound healing results in increased energy demands, therefore we hypothesized that wound healing times would be slower during periods of energy conservation and/or energy output. In this study we used an 8 mm diameter circular punch tool to biopsy the wing membranes of healthy adult female big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) from a captive research colony to test the hypothesis that healing times will vary with seasonal temperature changes between the summer and winter seasons, and with reproductive condition between lactating and non-reproductive females. As expected, membrane biopsies took significantly longer to heal during the winter when bats were hibernating compared to the summer when bats were active. Surprisingly, no difference in healing time was observed between lactating and non-reproductive females. The wings of most bats fully healed, although some individuals showed wound expansion demonstrating that impaired healing is occasionally observed in otherwise healthy subjects.

The flight membranes of bats are susceptible to damage (e.g., holes and tears) from a number of sources, including impacts with natural and man-made objects, fighting between conspecifics, and attacks by predators or pathogens. Biologists routinely biopsy bat wings as a method of tissue collection for molecular research, and sometimes for the temporary identification of animals in the field. A previous study reported that captive big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) rapidly and completely healed flight membrane wounds. Given that limited care is provided to animals following tissue biopsy in the field, we sought to determine whether healing times for wounds from bats in captivity were applicable to bats in the wild. We measured and compared healing times of wounds in the wing and tail membranes of 50 non-reproductive female big brown bats from a wild population in Cuba following recapture. Tail wounds healed significantly faster than wing wounds of the same size, likely because of the increased thickness and vasculature of the tail membrane. Our data are concordant with a previous laboratory study in captive big brown bats, and confirm that tail membrane biopsies are better for obtaining tissue samples for molecular work because tail wounds heal faster than wing wounds. Ó 2015 The Wildlife Society.

No abstract

No abstract