Seasonal reliance on nectar by an insectivorous bat revealed by stable isotopes

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• 作者：Winifred F. Frick (1)
  J. Ryan Shipley (2)
  Jeffrey F. Kelly (3)
  Paul A. Heady III (4)
  Kathleen M. Kay (1)
  
• 关键词：Antrozous pallidus ; Insectivory ; Mutualism ; Nectarivory ; Pachycereus pringlei
• 刊名：Oecologia
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：January 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：174
• 期：1
• 页码：55-65
• 全文大小：475 KB
• 作者单位：Winifred F. Frick (1)
  J. Ryan Shipley (2)
  Jeffrey F. Kelly (3)
  Paul A. Heady III (4)
  Kathleen M. Kay (1)
  
  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA
  2. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
  3. Oklahoma Biological Survey and Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA
  4. Central Coast Bat Research Group, Aptos, CA, 95001, USA
  
• ISSN：1432-1939

文摘

Many animals have seasonally plastic diets to take advantage of seasonally abundant plant resources, such as fruit or nectar. Switches from insectivorous diets that are protein rich to fruits or nectar that are carbohydrate rich present physiological challenges, but are routinely done by insectivorous songbirds during migration. In contrast, insectivorous bat species are not known to switch diets to consume fruit or nectar. Here, we use carbon stable isotope ratios to establish the first known case of a temperate bat species consuming substantial quantities of nectar during spring. We show that pallid bats (Antrozous pallidus) switch from a diet indistinguishable from that of sympatric insectivorous bat species in winter (when no cactus nectar is present) to a diet intermediate between those of insectivorous bats and nectarivorous bats during the spring bloom of a bat-adapted cactus species. Combined with previous results that established that pallid bats are effective pollinators of the cardon cactus (Pachycereus pringlei), our results suggest that the interaction between pallid bats and cardon cacti represents the first-known plant-pollinator mutualism between a plant and a temperate bat. Diet plasticity in pallid bats raises questions about the degree of physiological adaptations of insectivorous bats for incorporation of carbohydrate-rich foods, such as nectar or fruit, into the diet.