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The intake responses of three species of leaf-nosed Neotropical bats

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Abstract

Flower-visiting bats encounter nectars that vary in both sugar composition and concentration. Because in the new world, the nectars of bat-pollinated flowers tend to be dominated by hexoses, we predicted that at equicaloric concentrations, bats would ingest higher volumes of hexoses than sucrose-containing nectars. We investigated the intake response of three species of Neotropical bats, Leptonycteris curasoae, Glossophaga soricina and Artibeus jamaicensis, to sugar solutions of varying concentrations (292, 438, 584, 730, 876, and 1,022 mmol L−1) consisting of either sucrose or 1:1 mixtures of glucose and fructose solutions. Bats did not show differences in their intake response to sucrose and 1:1 glucose–fructose solutions, indicating that digestion and absorption in bat intestines are designed under the principle of symmorphosis, in which no step is more limiting than the other. Our results also suggest that, on the basis of energy intake, bats should not prefer hexoses over sucrose. We used a mathematical model that uses the rate of sucrose hydrolysis measured in vitro and the small intestinal volume of bats to predict the rate of nectar intake as a function of sugar concentration. The model was a good predictor of the intake responses of L. curasoae and G. soricina, but not of A. jamaicensis.

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Abbreviations

ΔM :

Change in mass

C sf :

Final concentration

V 0 :

Food intake

C s0 :

Initial concentration

K m :

Michaelis–Menten constant

S max :

Rate of hydrolysis

−r s :

Sucrose hydrolysis

SI:

Sugar intake

τ:

Transit time

G :

Volume of small intestine

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Acknowledgments

The authors’ acknowledge support by grants from PAPIIT-UNAM to KES and JES (IN225103–3). Scholarship support to JA was provided by CONACyT (scholarship 189397). We thank C. I. Garcia Leal, C. Chavez, and D. Salazar for valuable assistance in the field, H. Ferreira, G. Sánchez-Montoya, and A. Valencia Garcia for technical assistance, and the Estación de Biología Chamela for logistical support. Bats were captured with permission from the Oficina de Fauna Silvestre, Mexico, to JES (FAUT-0193).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciónes en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 27-3 (Xangari), 58089, Morelia, Michoacán, México

    Jorge Ayala-Berdon, Jorge E. Schondube, Kathryn E. Stoner & Nelly Rodriguez-Peña

  2. Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071-3166, USA

    Carlos Martínez Del Río

Authors
  1. Jorge Ayala-Berdon
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  2. Jorge E. Schondube
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  3. Kathryn E. Stoner
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  4. Nelly Rodriguez-Peña
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  5. Carlos Martínez Del Río
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jorge E. Schondube.

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Communicated by G. Heldmaier.

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Ayala-Berdon, J., Schondube, J.E., Stoner, K.E. et al. The intake responses of three species of leaf-nosed Neotropical bats. J Comp Physiol B 178, 477–485 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-007-0240-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-007-0240-x

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