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Comparative Study
. 2005 Dec 7;272(1580):2467-73.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3237.

Sex and segregation in temperate bats

Paula Senior  1 , Roger K Butlin, John D Altringham
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Sex and segregation in temperate bats

Paula Senior et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Many temperate insectivorous bats show marked sexual segregation during the summer, but in spectacular, pre-hibernation swarming, gather at caves to mate. In many species, sexual segregation is probably due to a gradient in aerial insect availability that confines females to lower elevations, where high reproductive costs are met by an abundant and reliable food supply. In the hawking and trawling Myotis daubentonii, we show that alongside inter-sexual segregation, there is intra-male segregation and suggest that this results from the exclusion of most males from high-quality habitat. These apparently excluded males suffer reduced foraging efficiency and mating success relative to males that roost with the females in summer. Changes in resources and behaviour at the end of the summer lead to a change in strategy that gives all males a chance to mate during swarming, but this does not overcome the paternity advantage to males that spend the summer with the females.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The study site in the upper reaches of the River Wharfe in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Summer roosts (red circles) and swarming sites/hibernacula (blue circles) are shown. The figures refer to the number of adult bats caught and ringed from the roosts and foraging sites during the summer months. The primary roosts are the bridges at Buckden and Kettlewell (upstream males) and Grassington (nursery) and a tree roost at Lythe House (nursery). All other roosts are satellites of these. All sampling was done at the four primary roosts.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Estimated numbers of potential male parents, Myotis daubentonii, at Grassington (downstream), Kettlewell and Buckden (upstream) bridge roosts and at the swarming sites (inset). The numbers of genotyped individuals are shown in parentheses. The estimates include turnover for the three-year study period. (b) Probability of an individual male from each of the roosting groups or the swarming sites fathering a juvenile bat from the Grassington nursery colony. (c) The roosting group level probability of paternity of the Grassington colony offspring.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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