The intake responses of three species of leaf-nosed Neotropical bats |
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Authors: | Jorge Ayala-Berdon Jorge E Schondube Kathryn E Stoner Nelly Rodriguez-Peña Carlos Martínez Del Río |
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Institution: | (1) Centro de Investigaciónes en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 27-3 (Xangari), 58089 Morelia, Michoacán, México;(2) Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071-3166, USA |
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Abstract: | Flower-visiting bats encounter nectars that vary in both sugar composition and concentration. Because in the new world, the
nectars of bat-pollinated flowers tend to be dominated by hexoses, we predicted that at equicaloric concentrations, bats would
ingest higher volumes of hexoses than sucrose-containing nectars. We investigated the intake response of three species of
Neotropical bats, Leptonycteris curasoae, Glossophaga soricina and Artibeus jamaicensis, to sugar solutions of varying concentrations (292, 438, 584, 730, 876, and 1,022 mmol L−1) consisting of either sucrose or 1:1 mixtures of glucose and fructose solutions. Bats did not show differences in their intake
response to sucrose and 1:1 glucose–fructose solutions, indicating that digestion and absorption in bat intestines are designed
under the principle of symmorphosis, in which no step is more limiting than the other. Our results also suggest that, on the
basis of energy intake, bats should not prefer hexoses over sucrose. We used a mathematical model that uses the rate of sucrose
hydrolysis measured in vitro and the small intestinal volume of bats to predict the rate of nectar intake as a function of
sugar concentration. The model was a good predictor of the intake responses of L. curasoae and G. soricina, but not of A. jamaicensis. |
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Keywords: | Bats Digestive modeling Intake response Nectar Sucrose hydrolysis |
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