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Quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)

Insectivorous bats provide important ecosystem services, especially by suppressing and controlling the insects’ biomass. To empirically quantify the number of insects consumed by European vespertilionid bats per night, we estimated their ratio of dry mass of feces to mass of consumed insects. This s...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Moiseienko, Marharyta, Vlaschenko, Anton
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Company of Biologists Ltd 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8214420/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34096574
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.058511
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author Moiseienko, Marharyta
Vlaschenko, Anton
author_facet Moiseienko, Marharyta
Vlaschenko, Anton
author_sort Moiseienko, Marharyta
collection PubMed
description Insectivorous bats provide important ecosystem services, especially by suppressing and controlling the insects’ biomass. To empirically quantify the number of insects consumed by European vespertilionid bats per night, we estimated their ratio of dry mass of feces to mass of consumed insects. This study combines the results of feeding in captivity and the data obtained in field surveys; dry mass of feces was measured in both cases. In captivity, we analyzed the effect of species, age and sex of bats, species of insects consumed and the mass of food portion on the dry mass of feces. Using coefficients of the regression model, we estimated the number of insects consumed by free-ranging bats based on dry mass of their feces. According to our estimates, on average, one individual of one of the largest European bat species, Nyctalus noctula, consumes 2.2 g (ranging from 0.5 to 8.2 g) of insects per one feeding night, while the smallest European bats of genus Pipistrellus consume 0.4 g (ranging from 0.1 to 1.3 g), further confirming the importance of insectivorous bats for ecosystem services. This publication offers the novel method for the estimation of insects’ biomass consumed by bats.
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spelling pubmed-82144202021-06-21 Quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) Moiseienko, Marharyta Vlaschenko, Anton Biol Open Methods & Techniques Insectivorous bats provide important ecosystem services, especially by suppressing and controlling the insects’ biomass. To empirically quantify the number of insects consumed by European vespertilionid bats per night, we estimated their ratio of dry mass of feces to mass of consumed insects. This study combines the results of feeding in captivity and the data obtained in field surveys; dry mass of feces was measured in both cases. In captivity, we analyzed the effect of species, age and sex of bats, species of insects consumed and the mass of food portion on the dry mass of feces. Using coefficients of the regression model, we estimated the number of insects consumed by free-ranging bats based on dry mass of their feces. According to our estimates, on average, one individual of one of the largest European bat species, Nyctalus noctula, consumes 2.2 g (ranging from 0.5 to 8.2 g) of insects per one feeding night, while the smallest European bats of genus Pipistrellus consume 0.4 g (ranging from 0.1 to 1.3 g), further confirming the importance of insectivorous bats for ecosystem services. This publication offers the novel method for the estimation of insects’ biomass consumed by bats. The Company of Biologists Ltd 2021-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8214420/ /pubmed/34096574 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.058511 Text en © 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
spellingShingle Methods & Techniques
Moiseienko, Marharyta
Vlaschenko, Anton
Quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
title Quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
title_full Quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
title_fullStr Quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
title_full_unstemmed Quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
title_short Quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
title_sort quantitative evaluation of individual food intake by insectivorous vespertilionid bats (chiroptera, vespertilionidae)
topic Methods & Techniques
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8214420/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34096574
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.058511
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