Wound healing in the flight membranes of wild big brown bats

Abstract

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.

Disease recovery in bats affected by white-nose syndrome

“…Consistent with our predictions based on field data (Fuller et al, 2011), captive bats in our study recovered to a normal state quickly after hibernation, and most signs of disease, except wing damage, were gone within 2 weeks. Skin structure and body condition recovered over a time scale after hibernation consistent with other studies of healing from WNS or other injuries in free-ranging and captive bats (Faure et al, 2009;Weaver et al, 2009;Fuller et al, 2011;Meteyer et al, 2011;Ceballos-Vasquez et al, 2015;Pollock et al, 2015;Greville et al, 2018;Khayat et al, 2019;Davis and Doster, 1972). Following pathogen clearance, tissue damage caused by both the pathogen and inflammatory reactions (Meteyer et al, 2011(Meteyer et al, , 2012 started to heal, and within 30 days of the start of our study, tissue damage was almost undetectable.…”

Characterizing wing tears in common pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pipistrellus): investigating tear distribution, wing strength, and possible causes

“…Indeed, Greville et al (2018) suggest that over-stretching of the collagen or elastin fibers during healing can cause the tear to enlarge before healing. This phenomenon also was observed in tail and wing membranes by Pollock et al (2016). We suggest that proximal-distal orientation of elastin fibers may hold the common rostro-caudal tears apart, thus increasing healing times.…”

“…Blood carries factors to the wound site to clean the wound, prevent infection, and begin the process of reforming the tissue matrix. Therefore, being close to a vessel is likely to be important for quick healing, which has also been suggested by Faure et al (2009) and Pollock et al (2016). As CI had the most extensive vasculature, we expect it to heal quicker than section P. While section P had the lowest numbers of blood vessels, it also had the thickest vessels.…”

Wound healing in wild male baboons: Estimating healing time from wound size

“…Healing time is therefore an important indicator for measuring wound severity, particularly in the wild, where bacterial and viral infections are more likely to occur than under laboratory conditions [ 14 ]. A few studies measured healing time in the wild [ 10 , 15 – 19 ]. Whereas small wild vertebrates (e.g., lizards [ 15 ] and bats [ 16 , 19 ]) can be captured, subject to standardized wounds, and then returned to their natural habitat where wounds can be monitored by recapturing these animals, large- and medium-sized wild vertebrates cannot be subjected to standardized wounds, released, and then recaptured.…”

“…A few studies measured healing time in the wild [ 10 , 15 – 19 ]. Whereas small wild vertebrates (e.g., lizards [ 15 ] and bats [ 16 , 19 ]) can be captured, subject to standardized wounds, and then returned to their natural habitat where wounds can be monitored by recapturing these animals, large- and medium-sized wild vertebrates cannot be subjected to standardized wounds, released, and then recaptured. Instead, researchers wait for natural wounds to occur in target animals and record qualitative observations of wound healing [ 10 , 17 , 18 ], and thus little is known on the relationships between wound area and healing time in large- and medium-sized wild animals.…”