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Migrating animals must acquire sufficient fuel to sustain migratory movement, but how time is allocated to achieve this can vary greatly. The fuel strategies used by migrating bats are not well understood and have not been investigated during the spring when insectivorous bats face low food abundance. Migrating silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans (Le Conte, 1831)) were captured at a stopover site in Long Point, Ontario, Canada, in April and May of 2012–2014. We followed the movements of 40 bats outfitted with radio transmitters using an automated telemetry array and examined the effects of ambient temperature, fat stores, and sex on stopover duration. As seen previously in autumn, most bats departed the evening following capture, but one-third of bats used multiday stopovers. Extended stopover was associated with lower ambient temperature. There was no effect of sex or fat at capture on stopover departure probability. Bats captured closer to dawn had greater fat mass and lean mass than those captured early in the night, a trend indicative of fuel deposition at this site. This is the first study to provide evidence that bats use stopover habitat for refuelling.

Wildlife are exposed to neurotoxic mercury at locations distant from anthropogenic emission sources because of long-range atmospheric transport of this metal. In this study, mercury bioaccumulation in insectivorous bat species (Mammalia: Chiroptera) was investigated on a broad geographic scale in Canada. Fur was analyzed (n = 1178) for total mercury from 43 locations spanning 20° latitude and 77° longitude. Total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in fur were positively correlated with concentrations in internal tissues (brain, liver, kidney) for a small subset (n = 21) of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), validating the use of fur to indicate internal mercury exposure. Brain methylmercury concentrations were approximately 10% of total mercury concentrations in fur. Three bat species were mainly collected (little brown bats, big brown bats, and northern long-eared bats [M. septentrionalis]), with little brown bats having lower total mercury concentrations in their fur than the other two species at sites where both species were sampled. On average, juvenile bats had lower total mercury concentrations than adults but no differences were found between males and females of a species. Combining our dataset with previously published data for eastern Canada, median total mercury concentrations in fur of little brown bats ranged from 0.88–12.78 μg/g among 11 provinces and territories. Highest concentrations were found in eastern Canada where bats are most endangered from introduced disease. Model estimates of atmospheric mercury deposition indicated that eastern Canada was exposed to greater mercury deposition than central and western sites. Further, mean total mercury concentrations in fur of adult little brown bats were positively correlated with site-specific estimates of atmospheric mercury deposition. This study provides the largest geographic coverage of mercury measurements in bats to date and indicates that atmospheric mercury deposition is important in determining spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a mammalian species.

Mammalian hibernation consists of energy-saving torpor bouts (periods of controlled reduction in body temperature [Tb]) interspersed with brief arousals to normothermic Tb. Frequency and duration of torpor bouts and arousals can affect winter survival and are thought to be influenced by an optimization balancing the energetic benefits of prolonged torpor against the physiological and ecological costs (e.g., accumulation of metabolic wastes). Female little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) spend their fat reserves more slowly than males during winter, presumably so they can emerge from hibernation in good condition to initiate pregnancy. We used temperature telemetry over three winters to test a prediction of the optimization hypothesis that female M. lucifugus would use longer torpor bouts and/or shorter arousals than males. Females did conserve energy relative to males by adjusting the magnitude and duration of arousals but not the duration of torpor bouts. Although torpor bout duration did not vary ...

The persistence of the notochord into the skeletally mature life stage is characteristic of gekkotans, but is otherwise of rare occurrence among amniotes. The taxonomic diversity of Gekkota affords the opportunity to investigate the structure and development of this phylogenetically ancestral component of the skeleton, and to determine its basic characteristics. The gekkotan notochord spans almost the entire postcranial long axis and is characterized by a moniliform morphology with regularly alternating zones of chordoid and chondroid tissue. Chordoid tissue persists in the region of intervertebral articulations and occupies the cavitations that lie between the centra of the amphicoelous vertebrae. Chondroid tissue is restricted to zones in which the diameter of the notochord is reduced, corresponding to mid-vertebral locations. In the tail, these zones of chondroid tissue are associated with the autotomic fracture planes. Chondroid tissue first manifests during late embryogenesis, appears to differentiate from pre-existing chordoid tissue, and has the histological and histochemical characteristics of cartilage. Our observations lend support to the hypothesis that cartilage can be derived directly from notochordal tissue, and suggest that the latter may be an evolutionary and developmental precursor to chordate cartilage. The persistence of chordoid tissue in the intervertebral regions of amphicoelous vertebrae is consistent with a suite of paedomorphic traits exhibited by gekkotans and suggests that the typical hydrostatic nature of notochordal tissue may play a role in mechanically governing patterns of displacement between adjacent amphicoelous vertebrae that lack extensive centrum-to-centrum contact. Morphol., 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hibernation physiology and energy expenditure have been relatively well studied in large captive hibernators, especially rodents, but data from smaller, free-ranging hibernators are sparse. We examined variation in the hibernation patterns of free-ranging little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) using temperature-sensitive radio-transmitters. First, we aimed to test the hypothesis that age, sex and body condition affect expression of torpor and energy expenditure during hibernation. Second, we examined skin temperature to assess whether qualitative differences in the thermal properties of the hibernacula of bats, compared with the burrows of hibernating rodents, might lead to different patterns of torpor and arousal for bats. We also evaluated the impact of carrying transmitters on body condition to help determine the potential impact of telemetry studies. We observed large variation in the duration of torpor bouts within and between individuals but detected no effect of age, sex or body condition on torpor expression or estimates of energy expenditure. We observed the use of shallow torpor in the midst of periodic arousals, which may represent a unique adaptation of bats for conservation of energy during the most costly phase of hibernation. There was no difference in the body condition of hibernating bats outfitted with transmitters compared with that of control bats captured from the same hibernaculum at the same time. This study provides new information on the energetics of hibernation in an underrepresented taxon and baseline data important for understanding how white-nose syndrome, a new disease devastating populations of hibernating bats in North America, may alter the expression of hibernation in affected bats. "This work was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC, Canada), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund to C.K.R.W. and a NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, a Manitoba Graduate Scholarship and a Bat Conservation International Student Research Scholarship to K.A.J." http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/12/2141

8 pages. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a new disease of bats that has devastated populations in eastern North America. Infection with the fungus, Geomyces destructans, is thought to increase the time bats spend out of torpor during hibernation, leading to starvation. Little is known about hibernation in healthy, free-ranging bats and more data are needed to help predict consequences of WNS. Trade-offs presumably exist between the energetic benefits and physiological/ecological costs of torpor, leading to the prediction that the relative importance of spring energy reserves should affect an individual’s use of torpor and depletion of energy reserves during winter. Myotis lucifugus mate during fall and winter but females do not become pregnant until after spring emergence. Thus, female reproductive success depends on spring fat reserves while male reproductive success does not. Consequently, females should be ‘‘thrifty’’ in their use of fat compared to males. We measured body condition index (BCI; mass/forearm length) of 432 M. lucifugus in Manitoba, Canada during the winter of 2009/2010. Bats were captured during the fall mating period (n = 200), early hibernation (n = 125), and late hibernation (n = 128). Adult females entered hibernation with greater fat reserves and consumed those reserves more slowly than adult males and young of the year. Consequently, adult females may be more likely than males or young of the year to survive the disruption of energy balance associated with WNS, although surviving females may not have sufficient reserves to support reproduction. "This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC, Canada) Discovery Grant to CKRW; the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Leader’s Opportunity Fund Grand to CKRW; the Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund Grant to CKRW; the NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship to KAJ; the Manitoba Graduate Scholarship to KAJ; and the Bat Conservation International Student Research Scholarship to KAJ." http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0021061