title: Low metabolism in a tropical bat from lowland Panama measured using heart rate telemetry: an unexpected life in the slow lane.
abstract: Animals must optimize their daily energy budgets, particularly if energy expenditures are as high as they are in flying animals. However, energy budgets of free-ranging tropical animals are poorly known. Newly miniaturized heart rate transmitters enabled this to be addressed this in the small, energetically limited, neotropical bat Molossus molossus. High-resolution 48 h energy budgets showed that this species significantly lowers its metabolism on a daily basis, even though ambient temperatures remain high. Mean roosting heart rate was 144 beats min(-1), much lower than expected for a 10 g bat. Low roosting heart rates combined with short nightly foraging times (37 min night(-1)) resulted in an estimated energy consumption of 4.08 kJ day(-1), less than one-quarter of the predicted field metabolic rate. Our results indicate that future research may reveal this as a more common pattern than currently assumed in tropical animals, which may have implications in the context of the effect of even small temperature changes on tropical species.
authors: University of Konstanz, Department of Biology, 78457 Konstanz, Germany. ddechmann@orn.mpg.de
authors: Dina K N
authors: DK
authors: Dechmann
authors: Severin
authors: S
authors: Ehret
authors: Aline
authors: A
authors: Gaub
authors: Bart
authors: B
authors: Kranstauber
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Wikelski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology; D010176:Panama; D013686:Telemetry; D013696:Temperature; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide