Implications of a specialized diet for the foraging behavior of the Honduran white bat, Ectophylla alba (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

Villalobos‐Chaves, David; Parallada, Manuel Spínola; Heer, Katrin; Kalko, Elisabeth K. V.; Rodríguez‐Herrera, Bernal

doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyx044

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The key to integrate this information into SDMs might be focal variables representing an average/overview of the surrounding cells within a predefined focal window (Pellet, Guisan, & Perrin, ). However, even with focal variables remains the question of the optimal spatial scales (i.e., size of the focal window), depending on the location of accessible habitats (Eigenbrod, Hecnar, & Fahrig, ) and the foraging range and behaviour of the species (Ancillotto et al, ; Krauel, Ratcliffe, Westbrook, & McCracken, ; Pellet et al, ; Razgour et al, ; Villalobos‐Chaves, Spínola‐Parallada, Heer, Kalko, & Rodríguez‐Herrera, ; Zanini et al, ). Jaberg and Guisan () aggregated several land cover and landuse classes within large‐enough pixel units of 2.5 km × 2.5 km to ensure capturing all important habitats and landscape components for bats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling bat distributions and diversity in a mountain landscape using focal predictors in ensemble of small models

Scherrer

Christe

Guisan

2019

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim: Bats are important components of mammalian biodiversity and strong bioindicators, but their fine-scale distributions often remain less known than other taxa (e.g., plants, birds). Yet as highly mobile species with multiple needs in the landscape, bats impose serious modelling challenges, such as advanced use of neighbourhood analyses. The aims of this study were to test the use of a designed sampling of bats for biodiversity and conservation assessments, and to find appropriate modelling solutions for providing nature practitioners with reliable potential bat distribution maps in a mountain area of high conservation interest. Location:The western Swiss Alps of Vaud. Methods:We conducted a one-year field survey combining passive acoustic recordings supplemented by mist net catching to collect data on bats. These data were then used to create univariate models with focal land use/cover variables using different focal window sizes to detect the optimal species-specific scale of influence for each variable. The large number of selected variables was then used to create ensembles of small models at a 100 m × 100 m resolution, and the resulting habitat suitability maps were transformed into species distribution maps for practitioners. Results:We were able to collect data to model 14 different bat species representing 66% of the Swiss bat diversity, including four red list species. In general, the most important variables were Euclidean distance to road or water, temperature and slope, but there was large variation among species both for the variable importance and for the optimal focal window size. Main conclusion: Our study greatly increased the knowledge of bats in this regionand showed that many of the red list species are nowadays disappearing from the intensively used lowland plains and restricted to the remaining forests along the slopes. Additionally, we highlighted the importance of selecting the variable scale on a species-specific basis accounting for their mobility and range sizes. K E Y W O R D S bioindicators, Continuous Boyce Index, habitat suitability model, multi-scale model, presenceonly model, rare species, Switzerland | 771 SCHERRER Et al.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling bat distributions and diversity in a mountain landscape using focal predictors in ensemble of small models

Scherrer

Christe

Guisan

2019

Diversity and Distributions

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“…Ectophylla alba forms very stable social groups [12], although the genetic relationship between adult individuals is almost zero [13]. It is known that groups switch together to new roosts, which are usually close to the currently occupied tent within a small area [17]. Tent construction is costly; time spent manipulating a leaf cannot be invested in foraging, and construction requires several nights [14].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social behaviour and vocalizations of the tent-roosting Honduran White Bat

Fernandez

Schmidt

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Bats are highly gregarious animals, displaying a large spectrum of social systems with different organizational structures. One important factor shaping sociality is group stability. To maintain group cohesion and stability, bats often rely on social vocal communication. The Honduran white bat, Ectophylla alba exhibits an unusual social structure compared to other tent-roosting species. This small white-furred bat lives in perennial stable mixed-sex groups. Tent construction requires several individuals and, as the only tent roosting species so far, involves both sexes. The bats’ social system and ecology render this species an interesting candidate to study social behaviour and social vocal communication. In our study, we investigated the social behaviour and vocalizations of E. alba in the tent by observing two stable groups, including pups, in the wild. We documented 16 different behaviours, among others, play and fur chewing, a behaviour presumably used for scent-marking. Moreover, we found 10 distinct social call types in addition to echolocation calls, and, for seven call types, we were able to identify the corresponding behavioural context. Most of the social call types were affiliative, including two types of contact calls, maternal directives, pup isolation calls and a call type related to the fur-chewing behaviour. In sum, this study entails an ethogram and describes the first vocal repertoire of a tent-roosting phyllostomid bat, providing the basis for further in-depth studies about the sociality and vocal communication in E. alba.

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“…Ectophylla alba forms very stable social groups [ 12 ], although the genetic relationship between adult individuals is very low [ 13 ]. It is known that groups switch together to new roosts, which are usually close to the currently occupied tent within a small area [ 17 ]. Tent construction is costly; time spent manipulating a leaf cannot be invested in foraging, and construction requires several nights [ 14 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We monitored two groups of E. alba in La Tirimbina Biological Reserve, Heredia Province, in the North-East of Costa Rica (10˚26´N, 83˚59´W) from May to June 2010. La Tirimbina Biological Reserve contains fragments of secondary tropical wet forest and has been the centre of detailed investigations on the natural history of E. alba in the last decade [8,10,12,14,[16][17][18].…”

Section: Study Site and Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social behaviour and vocalizations of the tent-roosting Honduran white bat

Fernandez

Schmidt

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

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Bats are highly gregarious animals, displaying a large spectrum of social systems with different organizational structures. One important factor shaping sociality is group stability. To maintain group cohesion and stability, bats often rely on vocal communication. The Honduran white bat, Ectophylla alba, exhibits an unusual social structure compared to other tent-roosting species. This small white-furred bat lives in perennial stable mixed-sex groups. Tent construction requires several individuals and, as the only tent roosting species so far, involves both sexes. The bats´ social system and ecology render this species an interesting candidate to study social behaviour and vocal communication. In our study, we investigated the social behaviour and vocalizations of E. alba in the tent by observing two stable groups, including pups, in the wild. We documented 16 different behaviours, among others play and fur chewing, a behaviour presumably used for scent-marking. Moreover, we found 10 distinct social call types in addition to echolocation calls, and for seven call types we were able to identify the corresponding broad behavioural context. Most of the social call types were affiliative, including two types of contact calls, maternal directive calls, pup isolation calls and a call type related to the fur-chewing behaviour. In sum, this study entails an ethogram and describes the social vocalizations of a tent-roosting phyllostomid bat, providing the basis for further in-depth studies about the sociality and vocal communication in E. alba.

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Implications of a specialized diet for the foraging behavior of the Honduran white bat, Ectophylla alba (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

Cited by 13 publications

References 61 publications

Modelling bat distributions and diversity in a mountain landscape using focal predictors in ensemble of small models

Modelling bat distributions and diversity in a mountain landscape using focal predictors in ensemble of small models

Social behaviour and vocalizations of the tent-roosting Honduran White Bat

Social behaviour and vocalizations of the tent-roosting Honduran white bat

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