Chiroptera Neotropical, 12(2), December 2006
NEW EVIDENCE OF BAT PREDATION BY THE WOOLLY FALSE VAMPIRE BAT CHROTOPTERUS
AURITUS
Marcelo Rodrigues Nogueira1, Leandro Rabello Monteiro1 & Adriano Lúcio Peracchi2
1 - Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais - CBB, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, 28013-600,
Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brasil. [email protected]; [email protected]
2 - Laboratório de Mastozoologia - IB, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, 23890-000,
Seropédica, RJ, Brasil. [email protected]
Abstract: We report on an additional evidence of bat predation by Chrotopterus auritus. Our record was obtained
during a single net session, when a female C. auritus was captured with a partially eaten Carollia perspicillata.
Preliminary data suggest that this latter species is very abundant in the region (a lowland Atlantic Forest area in
northern Rio de Janeiro state), corroborating the view of C. auritus as an opportunistic feeder.
Keywords: Atlantic forest, carnivory, Carollia perspicillata, Phyllostominae, southeastern Brazil
In the Neotropical region, bats with carnivorous feeding
habits (excluding fish-eaters) appear to have evolved
only in the speciose family Phyllostomidae, and, within
this, only among phyllostomines (sensu Wetterer et al.
2000). In this latter group, the incidence of carnivory
has been shown to be strongly related with bat’s body
size, with the larger species relying predominantly
(Chrotopterus auritus) or almost integrally (Vampyrum
spectrum) on vertebrate prey (Giannini & Kalko 2005).
These large bats are easily kept in captivity, where they
promptly accept, and efficiently manage, other bats as
prey (Greenhall 1968, Peracchi & Albuquerque 1976,
McCarthy 1987, Medellín 1988). In the wild, however,
available evidence suggests that C. auritus prey mainly
on rodents and V. spectrum on birds (Bonato et al.
2004), with only a few records reporting bat
consumption (e.g., Acosta Y Lara 1951, Arita & Vargas
1995, Bonato et al. 2004, Bordignon 2005). While this
may reflect an actual minor (if so) participation of bats
in their diet (e.g., Medellín 1988, Vehrencamp et al.
1977), it must be considered that our knowledge on
the feeding habits of these species is far from
satisfactory, which can be attributed, at least in part, to
the rareness in which both species occur in local
assemblages (e.g., Kalko et al. 1996).
On the night of 21 July 2006, we were collecting bats
for educational purposes at the Reserva Biológica
União, municipality of Rio das Ostras, state of Rio de
Janeiro, southeastern Brazil, when we find a female C.
auritus entangled in one of our nets and at her side a
partially eaten female Carollia perspicillata (head,
chest and most part of the wings were missing; Fig. 1).
Although we did not directly observe the bat hitting
the net with its prey, we are not considering the
possibility of predation on the net, as recently attributed
to the omnivorous bat Phyllostomus hastatus (Oprea
et al., 2006). Not only was the time available for
predation insufficient (we were almost constantly
inspecting the nets and quickly noticed when the C.
auritus was captured), but the bat was too entangled
(and exhibiting little mobility on its arms) to be able to
produce the extensive damage we saw in the predated
bat. Additionally, non eatable bat parts, such as the
forearms (lacking in the predated Carollia), were not
found under the net. Our evidence, therefore, points
toward a natural predation event, not related to our
procedures in the area.
Our net session at Rebio União involved an effort of
90 net-meters-hours (three 6m nets exposed for five
hours) and was performed in a dirty road (“trilha da
Jaqueira”, 22º26’10"S, 42º03’01"W) surrounded by
mature secondary lowland Atlantic Forest (see
Rodrigues (2004) for a description of the diversified
mosaic of natural habitats found at Rebio União). The
female was considered adult based on phalangeal
epiphyses ossification, but showed no sign of
reproductive activity. It was captured at 20:30 PM and
its forearm measured 88.8 mm. This specimen
represented only 2% of our whole sample (N=44),
which also included the following taxa: C. perspicillata
(N=32), Sturnira lilium (N=5), Platyrrhinus lineatus
(N=3), Desmodus rotundus (N=1), Phyllostomus
hastatus (N=1), and Pygoderma bilabiatum (N=1). All
specimens were released after examination, since our
license did not include permission to collect vouchers.
Page 286
Chiroptera Neotropical, 12(2), December 2006
Figure 1. The carnivorous bat C. auritus and a partially eaten C. perspicillata, captured in a lowland Atlantic Forest area
in Reserva Biológica União, southeastern Brazil.
Some authors have referred to C. auritus as an
opportunistic feeder (e.g., Sazima 1978, Bonato et al.
2004), which may also be the case at the Rebio União,
where C. perspicillata seems to be, by far, the most
abundant bat. Mello & Schittini (2005) also sampled
bats at this locality and found a similar strong
dominance of C. perspicillata (84% of the 206
individuals they captured). According to Fleming
(1988), predation may play a significant role in the
population dynamics of C. perspicillata, and may be
evocated to explain why this bat seems to be lunar
phobic (Mello, 2006). Our record, however, was
obtained during the darker phase of the moon, showing
that even under more favorable conditions the risk of
predation may be present. The only previous records
of bat predation on Carollia in the wild (and under
natural conditions) seems to be those from Fischer et
al. (1997) and Bordignon (2005), both inside roosts,
where most evidence of bat predation by bats seems to
come from (e.g., Acosta & Lara 1951, Arita & Vargas
1995, Arias et al. 1999, Bonato & Facure 2000). In the
instance reported here, however, cohabitation was
probably not the case, since our observations suggest
that C. auritus was transporting its prey while flying, a
situation that is typical of bats returning to their roost.
Predation on the wing, either around prey’s roost or
foraging/commuting areas (Fleming 1988), is a possible
but hard to observe alternative (Tuttle & Stevenson
1982). Complementary research planned to be carried
out at Rebio União may help to clarify if we
documented a rare event, or if bats (in this case, the
superabundant C. perspicillata) are a more regular prey
of C. auritus in this region.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are thankful to Marcelo T. Nascimento for the
invitation to participate in the field course of the
Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Recursos
Naturais (Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense), to
Whitson J. C. Junior for granting permission to our
activities at Rebio União, and to Marco A. R. Mello
for comments on an early draft of the manuscript. All
authors receive financial support form FAPERJ. LRM
and ALP are also supported by CNPq.
REFERENCES
Acosta Y Lara E. F. 1951. Notas ecológicas sobre
algunos quirópteros del Brasil. Comunicaciones
Zoologicas del Museo de Montevideo Montevideo
3: 1-2.
Arias V., F. Villalobos & J. M. MORA. 1999. Cría de
murciélago en la dieta de Trachops cirrhosus
Page 287
Chiroptera Neotropical, 12(2), December 2006
(Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) en Costa Rica. Revista
de Biologia Tropical 47: 1137-1138.
Arita H. T. & J. A. Vargas. 1995. Natural history,
interspecific association, and incidence of the cave
bats of Yucatan, Mexico. Southwestern Naturalist
40: 29–37.
Bonato V. & K. G. Facure. 2000. Bat predation by the
fringelipped bat Trachops cirrhosus (Chiroptera:
Phyllostomidae). Mammalia 64: 241–243.
Bonato V., K. G. Facure & W. Uieda. 2004. Food habits
of bats of subfamily Vampyrinae in Brazil. Journal
of Mammalogy 85: 708-713.
Bordignon M. O. 2005. Predação de morcegos por
Chrotopterus auritus (Peters) (Mammalia,
Chiroptera) no pantanal de Mato Grosso do Sul,
Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 22: 12071208.
Fischer E., W. Fischer, S. Borges, M. R. Pinheiro & A.
Vicentini. 1997. Predation of Carollia perspicillata
by Phyllostomus cf. elongatus in Central Amazonia.
Chiroptera Neotropical 3: 67-68.
Fleming T. H. (1988). The short-tailed fruit bat: a
study in plant-animal interactions. University of
Chicago Press, Chicago.
Giannini N.P. & E. K. V. Kalko 2005. The guild
structure of animalivorous leaf-nosed bats of Barro
Colorado Island, Panama, revisited. Acta
Chiropterologica 7: 131-146.
Kalko E. K. V., C. O. Handley Jr. & D. Handley. 1996.
Organization, diversity, and long-term dynamics of
a Neotropical bat community. Pp: 503–553. In Longterm studies of vertebrate communities. M.L.
Cody & J.A. Smallwood (eds.). Academic Press,
Boston, Massachusetts.
McCarthy T. J. 1987. Additional mammalian prey of
the carnivorous bats, Chrotopterus auritus and
Vampyrum spectrum. Bat Research News 28: 1–3.
Medellín R. A. 1988. Prey of Chrotopterus auritus,
with notes on feeding behavior. Journal of
Mammalogy 69: 841–844.
Mello M. A. R. 2006. Interações entre o morcego
Sturnira lilium (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) e
plantas da família Solanaceae. PhD Dissertation.
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, 144
p.
Mello M. A. R. & G. M. Schittini. 2005. Ecological
analysis of three bat assemblages from conservation
units in the Lowland Atlantic Forest of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. Chiroptera Neotropical 11: 206-210.
Oprea M., T. B. Vieira, V. T. Pimenta, P. Mendes, D.
Brito, A. D. Ditchfield, L. V. Knegt & C. E. L.
Esbérard. Bat predation by Phyllostomus hastatus.
Chiroptera Neotropical, 12(1): 255-258.
Peracchi A. L. & S. T. Albuquerque. 1976. Sobre os
hábitos alimentares de Chrotopterus auritus australis
Thomas, 1905 (Mammalia, Chiroptera,
Phyllostomidae). Revista Brasileira de Biologia 36:
179-184.
Rodrigues, P. J. F. P. 2004. A vegetação da Reserva
Biológica União e os efeitos de borda na Mata
Atlântica fragmentada. PhD Dissertation.
Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense,
Campos dos Goytacazes, 53 p.
Sazima I. 1978. Vertebrates as food items of the woolly
false vampire, Chrotopterus auritus. Journal of
Mammalogy 59: 617-618.
Tuttle M. D. & D.E. Stevenson. 1982. Growth and
survival of bats. Pp: 105-150. In Ecology of Bats.
T.H. Kunz (ed.). Plenum Press, New York.
Vehrencamp S. L., F. G. Stiles & J. W. Bradbury. 1977.
Observations on the foraging behavior and avian prey
of the neotropical carnivorous bat, Vampyrum
spectrum. Journal of Mammalogy 58: 469–478.
Wetterer A. L., M. V. Rockman, N. B. Simmons. 2000.
Phylogeny of phyllostomid bats (Mammalia,
Chiroptera): data from diverse morphological
systems, sex chromosomes, and restriction sites.
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural
History 248: 1-200.
Page 288