Numerous cold arousals and rare arousal cascades as a hibernation strategy in European Myotis bats
Language English Country England, Great Britain Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article
PubMed
31128642
DOI
10.1016/j.jtherbio.2019.04.002
PII: S0306-4565(18)30382-6
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- Keywords
- Clustering behaviour, Myotis myotis, Normothermic and cold arousals, Synchronised rewarming, Torpor bout,
- MeSH
- Arousal MeSH
- Chiroptera physiology MeSH
- Behavior, Animal MeSH
- Hibernation * MeSH
- Cold Temperature MeSH
- Seasons MeSH
- Torpor MeSH
- Body Temperature MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
Hibernating bats optimise the duration of torpor bouts and arousals in relation to hibernaculum microclimatic conditions and fat reserves. Clustering has significant physiological and ecological benefits, promoting successful hibernation of individuals. Such aggregations may help maintain optimal temperatures, allowing better energy utilisation than in solitarily bats. However, aroused bats in a cluster could conceivably disturb those still hibernating, starting an energy-demanding arousal process. Our study was conducted over two winters in two different hibernacula (cave and mine) in the Czech Republic, where Greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) have previously been diagnosed with white-nose syndrome. In 118 arousal episodes we recorded 193 individual arousals in which a warming phase was observed, 135 (69.9%) being cold arousals, where bats ceased increasing their body temperatures at ≤ 10 °C. The remaining arousals were standard normothermic arousals, where body (fur) surface temperatures reached > 20 °C. Cold arousals occurred during the mid- and late hibernation periods, suggesting they were a response to disturbance by a neighbour in the same cluster. Arousal cascades, where bats aroused in series, were rare (12.7%) and reached a maximum in mid-January. Our data suggest that Myotis bats prolong their torpor bouts using numerous cold arousals but few arousal cascades. Upon arrival of a bat, the clustered bats show tolerance to disturbing by conspecifics.
Department of Botany and Zoology Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics University of Pardubice Pardubice Czech Republic
Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences v v i Brno Czech Republic
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