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Proximity sensors on common noctule bats reveal evidence that mothers guide juveniles to roosts but not food.

ABSTRACT: Female bats of temperate zones often communally rear their young, which creates ideal conditions for naive juveniles to find or learn about resources via informed adults. However, studying social information transfer in elusive and small-bodied animals in the wild is difficult with traditional tracking techniques. We used a novel 'next-generation' proximity sensor system (BATS) to investigate if and how juvenile bats use social information in acquiring access to two crucial resources: suitable roosts and food patches. By tracking juvenile-adult associations during roost switching and foraging, we found evidence for mother-to-offspring information transfer while switching roosts but not during foraging. Spatial and temporal patterns of encounters suggested that mothers guided juveniles between the juvenile and the target roost. This roost-switching behaviour provides evidence for maternal guidance in bats, a form of maternal care that has long been assumed, but never documented. We did not find evidence that mothers guide the offspring to foraging sites. Foraging bats reported brief infrequent meetings with other tagged bats that were best explained by local enhancement. Our study illustrates how this recent advance in automated biologging provides researchers with new insights into longstanding questions in behavioural biology.

SUBMITTER: Ripperger S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6405471 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Proximity sensors on common noctule bats reveal evidence that mothers guide juveniles to roosts but not food.

Ripperger Simon S Günther Linus L Wieser Hanna H Duda Niklas N Hierold Martin M Cassens Björn B Kapitza Rüdiger R Koelpin Alexander A Mayer Frieder F

Biology letters 20190201 2

Female bats of temperate zones often communally rear their young, which creates ideal conditions for naive juveniles to find or learn about resources via informed adults. However, studying social information transfer in elusive and small-bodied animals in the wild is difficult with traditional tracking techniques. We used a novel 'next-generation' proximity sensor system (BATS) to investigate if and how juvenile bats use social information in acquiring access to two crucial resources: suitable r ...[more]

PMID: 30958135

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Project description:Over recent years, it became widely accepted that alternative, renewable energy may come at some risk for wildlife, for example, when wind turbines cause large numbers of bat fatalities. To better assess likely populations effects of wind turbine related wildlife fatalities, we studied the geographical origin of the most common bat species found dead below German wind turbines, the noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula). We measured stable isotope ratios of non-exchangeable hydrogen in fur keratin to separate migrants from local individuals, used a linear mixed-effects model to identify temporal, spatial and biological factors explaining the variance in measured stable isotope ratios and determined the geographical breeding provenance of killed migrants using isoscape origin models. We found that 72% of noctule bat casualties (n = 136) were of local origin, while 28% were long-distance migrants. These findings highlight that bat fatalities at German wind turbines may affect both local and distant populations. Our results indicated a sex and age-specific vulnerability of bats towards lethal accidents at turbines, i.e. a relatively high proportion of killed females were recorded among migratory individuals, whereas more juveniles than adults were recorded among killed bats of local origin. Migratory noctule bats were found to originate from distant populations in the Northeastern parts of Europe. The large catchment areas of German wind turbines and high vulnerability of female and juvenile noctule bats call for immediate action to reduce the negative cross-boundary effects of bat fatalities at wind turbines on local and distant populations. Further, our study highlights the importance of implementing effective mitigation measures and developing species and scale-specific conservation approaches on both national and international levels to protect source populations of bats. The efficacy of local compensatory measures appears doubtful, at least for migrant noctule bats, considering the large geographical catchment areas of German wind turbines for this species.

Dataset Information

Proximity sensors on common noctule bats reveal evidence that mothers guide juveniles to roosts but not food.

Publications

Proximity sensors on common noctule bats reveal evidence that mothers guide juveniles to roosts but not food.

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