Changes in body condition of hibernating bats support the thrifty female hypothesis and predict consequences for populations with white-nose syndrome.

ABSTRACT: 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 su

SUBMITTER: Jonasson KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3120823 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature