Roosting Ecology of Amazonian Bats: Evidence for Guild Structure in Hyperdiverse Mammalian Communities

Abstract

The ecological mechanisms that sustain high species richness in Neotropical bat communities have attracted research attention for several decades. Although many ecologists have studied the feeding behavior and diets of Neotropical bats on the assumption that food is a limiting resource, other resource axes that might be important for species coexistence are often ignored. Diurnal refugia, in particular, are a crucial resource for bats, many of which exhibit conspicuous morphological or behavioral adaptations to the roost environment. Here we report and analyze information about roost occupancy based on >500 field observations of Amazonian bats. Statistical analyses of these data suggest the existence of distinct groups of species roosting (1) in foliage, (2) exposed on the trunks of standing trees, (3) in cavities in standing trees, (4) in or under fallen trees, (5) beneath undercut earth banks, and (6) in arboreal insect nests; additionally, we recognize other groups that roost (7) in animal burrows, and (8) in rocks or caves. Roosting-guild membership is hypothesized to have a filtering effect on Amazonian bat community composition because some types of roosts are absent or uncommon in certain habitats. Among other applications of our results, cross-classifying bat species by trophic and roosting guilds suggests that the often-reported deficit of gleaning animalivores in secondary vegetation by comparison with primary forest might reflect habitat differences in roost availability rather than food resources. In general, ecological and evolutionary studies of Neotropical bats would be enhanced by considering both trophic-and roosting-guild membership in future analyses, but additional fieldwork will be required to determine the roosting behavior of many data-deficient species.

Out of the Antilles: Fossil phylogenies support reverse colonization of bats to South America

“…The evolution of high bite force is one outstanding trait of short‐faced bats (Dumont et al., ), but the differences between these and remaining lineages in the subfamily Stenodermatinae are not limited to feeding ecology and may encompass roosting behaviour. The importance of roosting ecology to diversity of species in this subfamily has been highlighted recently, as virtually all phyllostomids known to roost in leaves, and all tent‐making lineages, are stenodermatines (Voss, Fleck, Strauss, Velazco, & Simmons, ). Outside Sturnira , stenodermatines tend to have faces and/or dorsa disrupted by white lines (Rodríguez‐Herrera, Medellin, & Timm, ), colour patterns generally though to contribute to crypsis in vegetation roosts (Santana, Dial, Eiting, & Alfaro, ), and many of these species also roost in tents.…”

A multiple peak adaptive landscape based on feeding strategies and roosting ecology shaped the evolution of cranial covariance structure and morphological differentiation in phyllostomid bats

“…), and living species have been highly successful in exploiting an array of roosting environments (Kunz and Lumsden ; Voss et al. ; Garbino and Tavares ) and food resources (Giannini and Kalko ). Their feeding strategies are exceptionally diverse among mammals, including insects, vertebrates, fruit, pollen, nectar, young leaves, and even blood (Ferrarezi and Gimenez ; Freeman ; Wetterer et al.…”

“…We explored the evolution of morphological integration in the most ecologically diverse clade of mammals, the New World leaf-nosed bats, using a large dataset and combining both phylogenetic comparative methods and quantitative genetic approaches. The family Phyllostomidae evolved in the New World in the last 30 million years (Rojas et al 2016), and living species have been highly successful in exploiting an array of roosting environments (Kunz and Lumsden 2003;Voss et al 2016;Garbino and Tavares 2018) and food resources (Giannini and Kalko 2004). Their feeding strategies are exceptionally diverse among mammals, including insects, vertebrates, fruit, pollen, nectar, young leaves, and even blood (Ferrarezi and Gimenez 1996;Freeman 2000;Wetterer et al 2000;Giannini and Kalko 2004;Gardner 2007;Baker et al 2012).…”

A New Species of Nectar-Feeding Bat of the GenusHsunycteris(Phyllostomidae: Lonchophyllinae) from Northeastern Peru

“…The type locality of H. dashe ( fig. 2: locality 35), is one of the most diverse sites in the Neotropics, with over 60 bat species documented to date (Fleck et al, 2002;Voss et al, 2016). Only one other congener (H. pattoni) is known to occur at Nuevo San Juan, but a third species (H. thomasi) has been recorded at Jenaro Herrera ( fig.…”