Foraging ecology of three species of hipposiderid bats in tropical rainforest in north-east Australia

Abstract

We studied the foraging ecology of three species of hipposiderid bats – Hipposideros diadema (mean forearm length: 82 mm), H. cervinus (47 mm) and H. ater (41 mm) – in tropical, lowland rainforest in north-east Queensland, Australia. H. diadema foraged by perching within gaps and flying out to intercept slow-flying insects. The two smaller species typically foraged during flight, in undisturbed forest and gaps, and captured insects by aerial hawking. Seven arthropod taxa were identified in faeces of H. cervinus, with Coleoptera and Lepidoptera being present in most faeces. Percentage volume of moth scales was generally low: 35 of 60 faeces had a volume of <10%, whereas all faeces (n = 60) of H. ater had a moth scale volume of >90%. No other taxa were frequently present in faeces of H. ater. Differences in foraging ecology between H. diadema and the smaller species were related to its large size and low manoeuvrability. The dietary differences we found between H. ater and H. cervinus were unexpected, because both species have high-frequency echolocation calls (160–164 and 144–145 kHz, respectively), which suggested that both would capture predominantly moths. Our data show that pairs of hipposiderid species with only small differences in call frequencies may consume different prey taxa; however, we contend that dietary variation is more likely to result from differences in body size, wing morphology, and tooth, jaw, and cranial morphology.