title: Excepting Myotis capaccinii, the wings' contribution to take-off performance does not correlate with foraging ecology in six species of insectivorous bat.
abstract: Take-off in bats is separated into two distinct phases: an initial jump and a subsequent wing powered acceleration. Here, using footage from a high-speed camera, the first comparative study of the performance during the wing induced phase of take-off in six insectivorous bat species is described. Despite distinct differences in foraging strategy, the mass specific power generated by the bats during wing induced take-off did not differ between species, with the exception of Myotis capaccinii. This suggests that differences in take-off performance may only be evident in bats that exhibit particularly unusual foraging strategies, such as the trawling behaviour of M. capaccinii - with differences in the remaining species only manifesting in subtler aspects of flight performance such as agility or manoeuvrability. The poorer take-off performance of M. capaccinii could be related to either a reduction in wing-stroke amplitude to stop the wings hitting the water's surface during foraging or perhaps an effect of having very large feet. No scaling relationship between body mass and mass-specific take-off power was found, which supports earlier research on birds and insects, suggesting that the mass-specific muscle power available for flight is broadly similar across a large range of body sizes and species.
authors.affiliation: School of Computing, Science and Engineering, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK.
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Gardiner
authors.affiliation: The School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Altringham
authors.affiliation: The School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Papadatou
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK robert.nudds@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Nudds
keywords: bat; biomechanics; jumping; muscle; scaling; take-off