Echolocating bats prefer a high risk-high gain foraging strategy to increase prey profitability.

ABSTRACT: Predators that target multiple prey types are predicted to switch foraging modes according to prey profitability to increase energy returns in dynamic environments. Here, we use bat-borne tags and DNA metabarcoding of feces to test the hypothesis that greater mouse-eared bats make immediate foraging decisions based on prey profitability and changes in the environment. We show that these bats use two foraging strategies with similar average nightly captures of 25 small, aerial insects and 29 large, ground-dwelling insects per bat, but with much higher capture success in the air (76%) vs ground (30%). However, owing to the 3-20 times larger ground prey, 85% of the nightly food acquisition comes from ground prey despite the 2.5 times higher failure rates. We find that most bats use the same f

SUBMITTER: Stidsholt L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10112884 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature