Do bats use guano and urine stains to find new roosts? Tests with three group-living bats
| Autor: | Gerald G. Carter, Bridget K. G. Brown, Yesenia Valverde, Lauren Leffer, Rachel A. Page, Nia Toshkova, Jessica Nystrom |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
bats Zoology Molossus molossus Human echolocation 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Molossus 03 medical and health sciences Eptesicus fuscus Eptesicus 030304 developmental biology 0303 health sciences Desmodus Ecology Conservation and Global Change Biology Multidisciplinary biology biology.organism_classification Attraction roosting ecology Guano Desmodus rotundus sensory ecology Research Article |
| Zdroj: | Royal Society Open Science |
| ISSN: | 2054-5703 |
| Popis: | Many animals use social cues to find refuges. Bats can find roosts using the echolocation and social calls of conspecifics, but they might also use scent cues, a possibility which is less studied. The entrances of bat roosts are often marked by guano and urine, providing possible scent cues. We conducted eight experiments to test whether bats use the scent of guano and urine to find potential roosts. In field experiments, we tested ifMolossus molossus(velvety free-tailed bats) in Panama andEptesicus fuscus(big brown bats) in Ohio would investigate artificial roost boxes that were scented with guano and urine more often than a paired unscented control. We did not detect any difference in flights near the scented versus unscented roosts, and we detected only one entrance into any artificial roost (scented). In six captive experiments, we tested for the attraction ofDesmodus rotundus(common vampire bats) andMolossus molossusto areas scented with guano and urine, under several conditions. Results were mixed, but overall suggested that the scent of guano and urine does not act as a strong lure for the tested bat species. We suggest that further tests of olfaction-based roost choice in bats should manipulate existing scent cues on familiar roosts. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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