Stage of pregnancy dictates heterothermy in temperate forest-dwelling bats ...

• Main Authors: Otto, Matthias S., Becker, Nina I., Encarnação, Jorge A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2015
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Myotis nattereri
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13437816; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13437816

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Bats face high energetic requirements, as powered flight is costly and they have a disadvantageous surface-to-volume-ratio. To deal with those requirements energy saving mechanisms, such as heterothermy (torpor), have evolved. Torpor during pregnancy, however, reduces rates of foetal development and consequently prolongs pregnancy. Therefore, heterothermy has a great effect on reproduction, as an unhindered parturition can only be assured by high body temperatures. Regardless of these adverse affects of torpor the energetic requirements of bats during reproduction urge for energy savings and bats are known to enter torpor during pregnancy. The species in the current study differ in their torpor patterns and thus their heterothermic strategy. However, we hypothesized, that species-specific heterothermic behaviour should be revoked at the end of pregnancy. We analyzed skin temperatures of Myotis bechsteinii, Myotis nattereri and Plecotus auritus during ...