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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 57(6)

Bat heart mass: correlation with foraging niche and roost preference

R. D. Bullen A C , N. L. McKenzie B , K. E. Bullen A and M. R. Williams B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A 43 Murray Drive, Hillarys, WA 6025, Australia.

B Department of Environment and Conservation, PO Box 51, Wanneroo, WA 6946, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: bullen2@bigpond.com

Australian Journal of Zoology 57(6) 399-408 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO09053
Submitted: 29 April 2009  Accepted: 16 November 2009   Published: 22 January 2010

Abstract

We found that the spirit-preserved hearts of 34 species of Australian bat, representing 6 families, weighed from 0.3 to 0.65% of bat mass (mbat), a variation factor of two. The average mass of the heart specimens of the 34 species was 0.501% of bat mass and this did not vary with bat mass. This value was much lower than the average of the available published data, 0.991%. Insectivorous bats that forage or fly in and near three-dimensional clutter have heart mass fractions ~0.04% larger than average, whereas insectivorous bats that forage around and above the canopy in clear air have fractions ~0.16% smaller than average. Insectivorous bats that are obligate deep-cave roosters have significantly smaller fractions, 0.18% smaller than average, whereas those that hover have fractions ~0.08% larger than average. Available published data, although based on freshly sacrificed animals, show the same trends in relation to heart mass fraction and the same scatter and body-mass relationships. However, the magnitude of the fractions differs by a factor of two and may relate to our removal of all tissue except the musculature and walls of the four cardiac chambers.

Additional keywords: bat, foraging, heart, morphology, niche, roosting.


Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the Western Australian Museum for making their collection of specimens available to us for the study. The Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation made laboratory facilities available for the study. We also thank two unnamed referees who provided critical reviews of an early version of this manuscript.


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