Abstract

FERREYRA-GARCIA, Daniel; SALDANA-VAZQUEZ, Romeo Alberto  and  SCHONDUBE, Jorge E.. Climatic seasonality does not affect the phenology of cave bats with an omnivorous diet. Rev. Mex. Biodiv. [online]. 2018, vol.89, n.2, pp.488-496. ISSN 2007-8706.  https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2018.2.2016.

Animals’ phenology is strongly influenced by the climatic seasonality that promotes changes in the abundance of food resources. Species with omnivorous diet may not be affected by seasonality, being able to use different resources over time. To test this hypothesis, we describe the reproductive phenology of 3 species of cave bats with different diet habits in a temperate forest. Bats were captured monthly over 1 year with batting and mist nets traps inside 2 caves, finding that Anoura geoffroyi, a bat that feeds insects, pollen and can consume nectar with low sugar concentration, presented reproductive individuals at all seasons. Whereas, Leptonycteris yerbabuenae, a bat specialized in the consumption of nectar with high concentration of sugar that performs migrations following the flowering and fructification of chiropterophilic and chiropterochoric plants, was reproductive during the dry-warm season and at the end of the rainy one, when chiropterophilic plants was flowering in the zone. Finally, Myotis velifer, a bat that consumes insects on edges and within forest vegetation, formed a maternity colony at the end of the dry-warm season and early rainy season. We conclude that the climatic seasonality does not affect the phenology of bats with an omnivorous diet in temperate forests.

Keywords : Mexico; Michoacan; Phyllostomidae; Vespertilionidae; Reproduction.