Evidence for Exploitative Competition: Comparative Foraging Behavior and Roosting Ecology of Short-Tailed Fruit Bats (Phyllostomidae) |
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Authors: | Frank J Bonaccorso John R Winkelmann Danny Shin Caroline I Agrawal Nadia Aslami Caitlin Bonney rea Hsu Phoebe E Jekielek Allison K Knox Stephen J Kopach Tara D Jennings Jesse R Lasky Sarah A Menesale Jeannine H Richards Jessica A Rutland Anna K Sessa Luba Zhaurova Thomas H Kunz |
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Institution: | Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, U.S.A.;Department of Biology, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 17325, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | Chestnut short-tailed bats, Carollia castanea , and Seba's short-tailed bats, C. perspicillata (Phyllostomidae), were radio-tracked ( N = 1593 positions) in lowland rain forest at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Orellana Province, Ecuador. For 11 C . castanea , mean home range was 6.8 ± 2.2 ha, mean core-use area was 1.7 ± 0.8 ha, and mean long axis across home range was 438 ± 106 m. For three C . perspicillata , mean home range was 5.5 ± 1.7 ha, mean core-use area was 1.3 ± 0.6 ha, and mean long axis was 493 ± 172 m. Groups of less than five C. castanea occupied day-roosts in earthen cavities that undercut banks the Tiputini River. Carollia perspicillata used tree hollows and buildings as day-roosts. Interspecific and intraspecific overlap among short-tailed bats occurred in core-use areas associated with clumps of fruiting Piper hispidum (peppers ) and Cecropia sciadophylla . Piper hispidum seeds were present in 80 percent of the fecal samples from C . castanea and 56 percent of samples from C . perspicillata . Carollia perspicillata handled pepper fruits significantly faster than C . castanea ; however, C . castanea commenced foraging before C . perspicillata emerged from day-roosts. Evidence for exploitative competition between C . castanea and C . perspicillata is suggested by our observations that 95 percent of ripe P . hispidum fruits available at sunset disappear before sunrise ( N = 74 marked fruits). Piper hispidum plants produced zero to 12 ripe infructescences per plant each night during peak production. Few ripe infructescences of P . hispidum were available during the dry season; however, ripe infructescences of C . sciadophylla , remained abundant. |
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Keywords: | bats Carollia castanea Carollia perspicillata core-use area day-roost Ecuador home range Piper hispidum radio-telemetry rain forest |
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