Determinants and Patterns of Reproductive Success in the Greater Horseshoe Bat during a Population Recovery

Ward, Helen L.; Ransome, Roger D.; Jones, Gareth; Rossiter, Stephen J.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0087199

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 66 publications

(89 reference statements)

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“…These studies have provided mixed evidence for age‐related patterns of female survival (improvement followed by senescence, Davis, ; no senescence, Fleicher et al. 2017; Greiner et al., ) and reproduction (improvement and no, or little senescence, Ward, Ransome, Jones, & Rossiter, ; improvement and no senescence, Fleicher et al. 2017; Greiner et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Live fast, don't die young: Survival–reproduction trade‐offs in long‐lived income breeders

Culina

Linton

Pradel

et al. 2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Trade‐offs between survival and reproduction are at the core of life‐history theory, and essential to understanding the evolution of reproductive tactics as well as population dynamics and stability. Factors influencing these trade‐offs are multiple and often addressed in isolation. Further problems arise as reproductive states and survival in wild populations are estimated based on imperfect and potentially biased observation processes, which might lead to flawed conclusions.In this study, we aimed at elucidating trade‐offs between current reproduction (both pregnancy and lactation), survival and future reproduction, including the specific costs of first reproduction, in long‐lived, income breeding small mammals, an under‐studied group.We developed a novel statistical framework that encapsulates the breeding life cycle of females, and accounts for incomplete information on female pregnancy and lactation and imperfect and biased recapture rates. We applied this framework to longitudinal data on two sympatric, closely related bat species (Myotis daubentonii and M. nattereri).We revealed the existence of several, to our knowledge previously unknown, trends in survival and breeding of these closely related, sympatric species and detected remarkable differences in their age and costs of first reproduction, as well as their survival–reproduction trade‐offs.Our results indicate that species with this type of life history exhibit a mixture of patterns expected for long‐lived and short‐lived animals, and between income and capital breeders. Thus, we call for more studies to be conducted in similar study systems, increasing our ability to fully understand the evolutionary origin and fitness effects of trade‐offs and senescence.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Live fast, don't die young: Survival–reproduction trade‐offs in long‐lived income breeders

Culina

Linton

Pradel

et al. 2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…Despite their small size (wingspan <300 mm in our study species), bats can have exceptional longevity (e.g., over 30 years for some Myotis spp.) (Austad, 2010), but population recoveries from unfavourable perturbations are known to be limited by low productivity (Ward, Ransome, Jones, & Rossiter, 2014). Female bats in the genus Myotis typically produce a single juvenile per breeding season, with twins being exceptional (Altringham, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spring weather conditions influence breeding phenology and reproductive success in sympatric bat populations

Linton

Macdonald

2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Climate is known to influence breeding phenology and reproductive success in temperate-zone bats, but long-term population level studies and interspecific comparisons are rare. Investigating the extent to which intrinsic (i.e. age), and extrinsic (i.e. spring weather conditions), factors influence such key demographic parameters as the proportion of females becoming pregnant, or completing lactation, each breeding season, is vital to understanding of bat population ecology and life-history traits. Using data from 12 breeding seasons (2006-2017), encompassing the reproductive histories of 623 Myotis daubentonii and 436 Myotis nattereri adult females, we compare rates of recruitment to the breeding population and show that these species differ in their relative sensitivity to environmental conditions and climatic variation, affecting annual reproductive success at the population level. We demonstrate that (1) spring weather conditions influence breeding phenology, with warm, dry and calm conditions leading to earlier parturition dates and advanced juvenile development, whilst cold, wet and windy weather delays birth timing and juvenile growth; (2) reproductive rates in first-year females are influenced by spring weather conditions in that breeding season and in the preceding breeding season when each cohort was born. Pregnancy and lactation rates were both higher when favourable spring foraging conditions were more prevalent; (3) reproductive success increases with age in both species, but at different rates; (4) reproductive rates were consistently higher, and showed less interannual variation, in second-year and older M. daubentonii (mean 91.55% ± 0.05 SD) than M. nattereri (mean 72.74% ± 0.15 SD); (5) estimates of reproductive success at the population level were highly correlated with the size of the juvenile cohort recorded each breeding season. Improving understanding of the influence of environmental conditions, especially extreme climatic fluctuations, and the identification of critical periods (i.e. spring for reproductive female bats in temperate zones), which have disproportionate and lasting impacts on breeding phenology and reproductive success at a population level, is critical for improving predictions of the likely impact of climate change on bat populations.

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“…Despite their relative lack of overall morphological divergence, horseshoe bats can often be differentiated from each other on the basis of body size, the shape and size of their noseleaf (Csorba et al, 2003), and their peak echolocation call frequency (Kingston & Rossiter, 2004;Stoffberg, 2007;Sedlock & Weyandt, 2009;Stoffberg et al, 2010;Stoffberg, Jacobs & Matthee, 2011;Taylor et al, 2012). Horseshoe bats have long been recognized as important model organisms in auditory research (Long & Schnitzler, 1975;Fenton & Bell, 1981;Jones & Ransome, 1993;Li et al, 2007), and have also been subject of many molecular studies ranging from population genetics (Rossiter et al, 2000;Chen et al, 2009) and phylogeography (Flanders et al 2009(Flanders et al , 2011Mao et al 2010Mao et al , 2013Dool et al 2013) to social structure (Rossiter et al, 2000;Puechmaille et al, 2014;Ward et al, 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

The use of museum samples for large-scale sequence capture: a study of congeneric horseshoe bats (family Rhinolophidae)

Bailey

Mao

Struebig

et al. 2015

Biol. J. Linn. Soc.

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Museums hold most of the world's most valuable biological specimens and tissues collected, including type material that is often decades or even centuries old. Unfortunately, traditional museum collection and storage methods were not designed to preserve the nucleic acids held within the material, often reducing its potential viability and value for many genetic applications. High‐throughput sequencing technologies and associated applications offer new opportunities for obtaining sequence data from museum samples. In particular, target sequence capture offers a promising approach for recovering large numbers of orthologous loci from relatively small amounts of starting material. In the present study, we test the utility of target sequence capture for obtaining data from museum‐held material from a speciose mammalian genus: the horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae: Chiroptera). We designed a ‘bait’ for capturing > 3600 genes and applied this to 10 species of horseshoe bat that had been collected between 93 and 7 years ago and preserved using a range of methods. We found that the mean recovery rate per species was approximately 89% of target genes with partial sequence coverage, ranging from 3024 to 3186 genes recovered. On average, we recovered 1206 genes with ≥ 90% sequence coverage, per species. Our findings provide good support for the application of large‐scale bait capture across congeneric species spanning approximately 15 Myr of evolution. On the other hand, we observed no clear association between the success of capture and the phylogenetic distance from the bait model, although sample sizes precluded a formal test.

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Determinants and Patterns of Reproductive Success in the Greater Horseshoe Bat during a Population Recovery

Cited by 15 publications

References 66 publications

Live fast, don't die young: Survival–reproduction trade‐offs in long‐lived income breeders

Live fast, don't die young: Survival–reproduction trade‐offs in long‐lived income breeders

Spring weather conditions influence breeding phenology and reproductive success in sympatric bat populations

The use of museum samples for large-scale sequence capture: a study of congeneric horseshoe bats (family Rhinolophidae)

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