REPRODUCTIVE ENERGETICS OF CAPTIVE AND FREE-RANGING EGYPTIAN FRUIT BATS (ROUSETTUS AEGYPTIACUS)

Ecology ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmi Korine ◽  
John Speakman ◽  
Zeev Arad
Keyword(s):  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Reproductive Energetics

scholarly journals Lagos Bat Virus Infection Dynamics in Free-Ranging Straw-Colored Fruit Bats (Eidolon helvum)

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Suu-Ire ◽  
Anthony Fooks ◽  
Ashley Banyard ◽  
David Selden ◽  
Kofi Amponsah-Mensah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virus Infection ◽  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Bat Virus ◽  
Infection Dynamics ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Eidolon Helvum

scholarly journals Sick Bats Stay Home Alone: Social distancing during the acute phase response in Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey R. Moreno ◽  
Maya Weinberg ◽  
Lee Harten ◽  
Valeria B. Salinas Ramos ◽  
L. Gerardo Herrera M. ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Physiological Responses ◽  
Pathogen Transmission ◽  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Fruit Bat ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sickness Behaviors ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Contact Free ◽  
Free Ranging

AbstractAlong with its many advantages, social roosting imposes a major risk of pathogen transmission. How social animals, and especially free-ranging mammals, reduce this risk is poorly documented. We used lipopolysaccharide injection to imitate bacterial sickness in both a captive and a free-ranging colony of an extremely social, long lived mammal – the Egyptian fruit bat. We monitored behavioral and physiological responses using an arsenal of methods, including on-board GPS and acceleration, video, temperature and weight measurements, and blood samples. Sick-like bats exhibited an increased immune response, as well as classical illness symptoms including fever, weight loss, anorexia, and lethargy. Notably, they also isolated themselves from the group by leaving the social cluster and avoiding contact. Free-ranging individuals ceased foraging outdoors for at least two nights. Together, these sickness behaviors demonstrate a strong, integrative immune response which promotes recovery of infected individuals while protecting their group members from transmission of pathogens, and at the same time, reducing spillover events outside the roost.

scholarly journals Persistence of Multiple Paramyxoviruses in a Closed Captive Colony of Fruit Bats (Eidolon helvum)

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Gibson ◽  
Maria Puig Ribas ◽  
James Kemp ◽  
Olivier Restif ◽  
Richard D. Suu-Ire ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Fatal Disease ◽  
Zoonotic Viruses ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
Natural Hosts ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Eidolon Helvum

Bats have been identified as the natural hosts of several emerging zoonotic viruses, including paramyxoviruses, such as Hendra and Nipah viruses, that can cause fatal disease in humans. Recently, African fruit bats with populations that roost in or near urban areas have been shown to harbour a great diversity of paramyxoviruses, posing potential spillover risks to public health. Understanding the circulation of these viruses in their reservoir populations is essential to predict and prevent future emerging diseases. Here, we identify a high incidence of multiple paramyxoviruses in urine samples collected from a closed captive colony of circa 115 straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum). The sequences detected have high nucleotide identities with those derived from free ranging African fruit bats and form phylogenetic clusters with the Henipavirus genus, Pararubulavirus genus and other unclassified paramyxoviruses. As this colony had been closed for 5 years prior to this study, these results indicate that within-host paramyxoviral persistence underlies the role of bats as reservoirs of these viruses.

scholarly journals Seasonal challenges of tropical bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) in temperate zones

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Weinberg ◽  
Omer Mazar ◽  
Sohpie Goutnik ◽  
Lee Harten ◽  
Michal Handel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Winter Weather ◽  
Fruit Bat ◽  
Northern Edge ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Adult Morbidity

Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) manage to survive and flourish in a large geographic range despite the variability of natural and anthropogenic conditions in this range. To examine the challenges faced by free-ranging R. aegyptiacus living at the northern edge of their distribution, we performed a retrospective analysis of ~1500 clinical cases reported by a bat rescue NGO over 25 months, from all over Israel. All cases of injured or stranded bats were evaluated and categorized according to date, place, sex, age, and etiology of the morbidity. The analysis of the data showed an increase in all types of morbidity during the wintertime, with more than twice the number of cases in comparison with the summertime, over two consecutive years. Moreover, we found that the number of abandoned pups peaks during spring till autumn when adult morbidity is minimal. We characterize two prominent types of previously undescribed morbidity in R. aegyptiacus, one in the form of bacterial illness, and the other associated with feet deformation which affects bats in addition to major anthropogenic-related threats related to synanthropic predators. We analyze the reasons driving winter morbidity and conclude that winter weather and specifically low temperature best explains this morbidity. We hypothesize that R. aegyptiacus, a fruit-bat of tropical origin is facing major seasonal difficulties near the northern edge of its distribution, probably limiting its further spread northward.

scholarly journals Persistence of Multiple Paramyxoviruses in a Closed Captive Colony of Fruit Bats (Eidolon helvum)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Gibson ◽  
Maria Puig Rebas ◽  
James Kemp ◽  
Olivier Restif ◽  
Richard D. Suu-Ire ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Fatal Disease ◽  
Zoonotic Viruses ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
Natural Hosts ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Eidolon Helvum

Bats have been identified as the natural hosts of several emerging zoonotic viruses, including paramyxoviruses, such as Hendra and Nipah viruses, that can cause fatal disease in humans. Recently, African fruit bats with populations that roost in or near urban areas have been shown to harbour a great diversity of paramyxoviruses, posing potential spillover risks to public health. Understanding the circulation of these viruses in their reservoir populations is essential to predict and prevent future emerging diseases. Here, we identify a high incidence of multiple paramyxoviruses in urine samples collected from a closed, captive colony of circa. 115 straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum). The sequences detected have high nucleotide identities with those derived from free ranging African fruit bats and form phylogenetic clusters with the Henipavirus genus, Pararubulavirus genus and other unclassified paramyxoviruses. As this colony had been closed for 5 years prior to this study, these results indicate that within-host paramyxoviral persistence underlies the role of bats as reservoirs of these viruses.

scholarly journals Commuting fruit bats beneficially modulate their flight in relation to wind

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1782) ◽  
pp. 20140018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Sapir ◽  
Nir Horvitz ◽  
Dina K. N. Dechmann ◽  
Jakob Fahr ◽  
Martin Wikelski
Keyword(s):  
Convergent Evolution ◽  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Movement Model ◽  
Cost Of Transport ◽  
Wind Drift ◽  
Optimal Movement ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Eidolon Helvum

When animals move, their tracks may be strongly influenced by the motion of air or water, and this may affect the speed, energetics and prospects of the journey. Flying organisms, such as bats, may thus benefit from modifying their flight in response to the wind vector. Yet, practical difficulties have so far limited the understanding of this response for free-ranging bats. We tracked nine straw-coloured fruit bats ( Eidolon helvum ) that flew 42.5 ± 17.5 km (mean ± s.d.) to and from their roost near Accra, Ghana. Following detailed atmospheric simulations, we found that bats compensated for wind drift, as predicted under constant winds, and decreased their airspeed in response to tailwind assistance such that their groundspeed remained nearly constant. In addition, bats increased their airspeed with increasing crosswind speed. Overall, bats modulated their airspeed in relation to wind speed at different wind directions in a manner predicted by a two-dimensional optimal movement model. We conclude that sophisticated behavioural mechanisms to minimize the cost of transport under various wind conditions have evolved in bats. The bats’ response to the wind is similar to that reported for migratory birds and insects, suggesting convergent evolution of flight behaviours in volant organisms.

scholarly journals A Fruitful Endeavor: Scent Cues and Echolocation Behavior Used by Carollia castanea to Find Fruit

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L B Leiser-Miller ◽  
Z A Kaliszewska ◽  
M E Lauterbur ◽  
Brianna Mann ◽  
J A Riffell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Food Resource ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Environmental Cues ◽  
Fruit Bats ◽  
Ripe Fruit ◽  
Behavioral Experiments ◽  
Behavioral Adaptations ◽  
Foraging Decisions ◽  
Free Ranging

Synopsis Frugivores have evolved sensory and behavioral adaptations that allow them to find ripe fruit effectively, but the relative importance of different senses in varying foraging scenarios is still poorly understood. Within Neotropical ecosystems, short-tailed fruit bats (Carollia: Phyllostomidae) are abundant nocturnal frugivores that rely primarily on Piper fruits as a food resource. Previous research has demonstrated that Carollia employs olfaction and echolocation to locate Piper fruit, but it is unknown how their sensory use and foraging decisions are influenced by the complex diversity of chemical cues that fruiting plants produce. Using free-ranging C. castanea and their preferred food, Piper sancti-felicis, we conducted behavioral experiments to test two main hypotheses: (1) foraging decisions in C. castanea are primarily driven by ripe fruit scent and secondarily by vegetation scent, and (2) C. castanea re-weights their sensory inputs to account for available environmental cues, with bats relying more heavily on echolocation in the absence of adequate scent cues. Our results suggest that C. castanea requires olfactory information and relies almost exclusively on ripe fruit scent to make foraging attempts. Piper sancti-felicis ripe fruit scent is chemically distinct from vegetation scent; it is dominated by 2-heptanol, which is absent from vegetation scent, and has a greater abundance of β-caryophyllene, β-ocimene, γ-elemene, and α-cubebene. Although variation in echolocation call parameters was independent of scent cue presence, bats emitted longer and more frequent echolocation calls in trials where fruit scent was absent. Altogether, these results highlight the adaptations and plasticity of the sensory system in neotropical fruit bats.

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