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 BA 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.
Alonso-Mejia, A. , and Medellin, R. A. (1991). Micronicteris megalotis. Mammalian Species 376, 1–6.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Bishop, C. M. (1997). Heart mass and the maximum cardiac output of birds and mammals: implications for estimating the maximum aerobic power input of flying animals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 352, 447–456.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Clarke, K. R. , and Green, R. H. (1988). Statistical design and analysis for a ‘biological effects’ study. Marine Ecology Progress Series 46, 213–226.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Gleeson, T. T. , Mullin, W. J. , and Baldwin, K. M. (1983). Cardiovascular response to treadmill exercise in rats: effect of training. Journal of Applied Physiology: Respiration, Environment and Exercise Physiology 54, 789–793.
| CAS |
Jürgens, K. D. , Bartels, H. , and Bartels, R. (1981). Blood oxygen transport and organ weights of small bats and small non-flying mammals. Respiration Physiology 45, 243–260.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Karas, R. H. , Taylor, C. R. , Rosler, K. , and Hoppeler, H. (1987). Adaptive variation in the mammalian respiratory system in relation to energetic demand: V. Limits to oxygen transport by the circulation. Respiration Physiology 69, 65–79.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
McKenzie, N. L. , and Bullen, R. D. (2009). The echolocation calls, habitat relationships, foraging niches and communities of Pilbara microbats. Records of the Western Australian Museum (Suppl.),in press.
McKenzie, N.L. , and Muir, W. P. (2000). Bats of the southern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 61(Suppl.), 465–477.
McKenzie, N. L. , Gunnell, A. , Yani, M. , and Williams, M. (1995). Correspondence between flight morphology and foraging ecology in some Paleotropical bats. Australian Journal of Zoology 43, 241–257.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Rydell, J. , and Bogdanowicz, W. (1997). Barbastella barbastellus. Mammalian Species 557, 1–8.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Thomas, S. P. (1975). Metabolism During Flight of Two Species of Bats, Phyllostomus hastatus and Pteropus gouldii. The Journal of Experimental Biology 63, 273–293.
| CAS | PubMed |
Vanlalnghaka, C. , Keny, V. L. , Satralkar, M. K. , Khare, P. V. , Pujari, P. D. , and Joshi, D. S. (2005). Natural twilight phase response curves for the cave-dwelling bat, Hipposideros speoris. Chronobiology International 22, 793–800.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
Wolk, E. , and Ruprecht, A. L. (1988). Haematological values in the serotine bat, Eptesicus serotinus (Schreber, 1774). Acta Theriologica 33, 545–553.
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)