Great tits search for, capture, kill and eat hibernating bats

• Published in: Biology Letters
• Main Authors: Estók, Péter, Zsebők, Sándor, Siemers, Björn M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2009
• Subjects: Parus; Pipistrellus pipistrellus
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0611; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0611; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0611

Ecological pressure paired with opportunism can lead to surprising innovations in animal behaviour. Here, we report predation of great tits ( Parus major ) on hibernating pipistrelle bats ( Pipistrellus pipistrellus ) at a Hungarian cave. Over two winters, we directly observed 18 predation events. T...