Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T22:05:17.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tents and harems: apparent defence of foliage roosts by tent-making bats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Thomas H. Kunz  and
Gary F. McCracken
Thomas H. Kunz
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
Gary F. McCracken
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Palmate umbrella tents used by tent-making bats in Trinidad, West Indies, were observed in three species of Neotropical palms, Sabal mauritiiformis, Coccothrinax barbadensis and Mauritia flexuosa. Tents were most common in palm leaves that have supporting petioles angled at 50–70° above the horizontal. The shape and volume of tents is influenced mostly by leaf morphology (leaf width and leaflet length) and age of the tent. Tent-crowns varied from being heart-shaped in S. mauritiiformis, oval or round in C. barbadensis and spade-shaped in M. flexuosa. Leaves in which tents were constructed were most often beneath overhanging vegetation, and were generally free of vegetation below, allowing bats to enter and depart from tents without being impeded by the clutter of adjacent vegetation.

Singles and small apparent harem groups of two bat species, Artibeus jamaicensis and Uroderma bilobatum, were captured and observed in tents made from the leaves of S. mauritiiformis and C. barbadensis. No bats were observed in tents constructed in leaves of M. flexuosa. The apparent harem social organization in these and other tent-making bat species suggests that leaves modified into tents may provide critical and defendable resources that promote the evolution of polygyny. This hypothesis is based on the observed patchy distribution of suitable palm trees, the inappropriateness of many palm leaves as potential tents and the resultant architecture provided by palmate umbrella tents. We suggest that tent-making is an adult male behaviour.

Keywords

Artibeus jamaicensisbatsChiropteraNeotropicsPhyllostomidaeresource defencetent architecturetent-making behaviourUroderma bilobatum
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 121 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Anthony, E. L. P. 1988. Age deterination in bats. Pp. 47–58 in Kunz, T. H. (ed.). Ecological and behavioral methods for the study of bats. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.533 pp.Google Scholar
Bailey, L. H. 1947. Indigenous palms of Trinidad and Tobago. Gentes Herbarium 5. 7:357–445.Google Scholar
Barbour, T. 1932. A peculiar roosting habit of bats. Quarterly Review of Biology 7:307–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beard, J. S. 1946. The natural vegetation of Trinidad. Oxford University Press. 152 pp.Google Scholar
Bloedel, P. 1955. Observations on the life histories of Panama bats. Journal of Mammalogy 36:232–235.Google Scholar
Bradbury, J. W. & Vehrencamp, S. L. 1977. Social organization and foraging in emballonurid bats. II. Mating systems. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 2:1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooke, A. P. 1987. Tent construction and social organization in Vampyressa nymphata (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 3:171–175.Google Scholar
Brooke, A. P. 1990. Tent selection, roosting ecology and social organization of the tent-making bat, Ectophylla alba, in Costa Rica. Journal of Zoology (London) 221:11–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, G. M. 1969. Bats of the Arima Valley, Trinidad, W.I. Privately published, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.Google Scholar
Charles-Dominique, P. 1993. Tent use by the bat Rhinophylla pumilio (Phyllostomidae: Carolliinae) in French Guiana. Biotropica 25:111–116.Google Scholar
Dickerman, R. W., Koopman, K. F. & Semour, C. 1981. Notes on bats from the Pacific lowlands of Guatemala. Journal of Mammalogy 62:406–411.Google Scholar
Emlen, S. T. & Oring, L. W. 1977. Ecology, sexual selection, and the evolution of mating systems. Science 197:215–223.Google Scholar
Foster, M. S. & Timm, R. M. 1976. Tent-making by Artibeus jamaicensis (Chiroptera: Phyllostomatidae) with comments on plants used by bats for tents. Biotropica 8:265–269.Google Scholar
Goodwin, G. G. & Greenhall, A. M. 1961. A review of the bats of Trinidad and Tobago: descriptions, rabies infection, and ecology. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 122:187–302.Google Scholar
Goodwin, R. E. 1979. The bats of Timor: systematics and ecology. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 163:73–122.Google Scholar
Jimbo, S. & Schwassmann, H. O. 1967. Feeding behavior and daily emergence patterns of Artibeus jamaicensis Leach (Chiroptera: Phyllostomatidae). Pp. 239–253 in Lent, H. (ed.). Atas do Simposio sobre a Biota Amazonica. Vol. 5 (Zoologia), Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas, Rio de Janeiro. 603 pp.Google Scholar
Jones, J. K. Jr. 1964. Bats new to the fauna of Nicaragua. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 67:506–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koepcke, J. 1984. ‘Blattzelte’ als Schlafplatze der Fledermaus Ectophylla macconnelli (Thomas, 1901) (Phyllostomidae) im tropischen Regenwald von Peru. Saugetierkundliche Mitteilungen 31:123–126.Google Scholar
Koopman, K. F. 1993. Chiroptera. Pp. 137–241 in Wilson, D. E. & Reeder, D. A. (eds). Mammal species of the world. 2nd edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.1206 pp.Google Scholar
Kunz, T. H. 1982. Roosting ecology of bats. Pp. 1–50 in Kunz, T. H. (ed.). Ecology of bats. Plenum Press, New York. 425 pp.Google Scholar
Kunz, T. H., August, P. V. & Burnett, C. D. 1983. Harem social organization in cave roosting Artibeus jamaicensis (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Biotropica 15:133–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunz, T. H. & Nagy, K. A. 1988. Methods of energy budget analysis. Pp. 277–302 in Kunz, T. H. (ed.). Ecological and behavioral methods for the study of bats. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.533 pp.Google Scholar
McCracken, G. F. & Bradbury, J. W. 1981. Social organization and kingship in the polygynous bat Phyllostomus hastatus. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 8:11–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, D. W. 1978. Foraging ecology and energetics of the frugivorous bat Artibeus jamaicensis. Ecology 59:716–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, D. W. 1979. Apparent male defense of tree hollows in the fruit bat, Artineus jamaicensis. Journal of Mammalogy 60:11–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, D. W. & Morrison, S. G. 1981. Economics of harem maintenance by a neotropical bat. Ecology 62:864–866.Google Scholar
Racey, P. A. 1988. Reproductive assessment in bats. Pp. 31–46 in Kunz, T. H. (ed.). Ecological and behavioral methods for the study of bats. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.533 pp.Google Scholar
Read, R. W. 1979. Palms of the Lesser Antilles. Pp. 320–368 in Howard, R. A. (ed.). Flora of the Lesser Antilles: Leeward and Windward Islands, Vol. 3: Monocotyledoneae. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University, Jamaica Plain. 586 pp.Google Scholar
Read, R. W. 1986. Utilization of indigenous palms in the Caribbean (in relation to their abundance). Advances in Economic Botany 6:137–143.Google Scholar
Rickart, E. A., Heidemann, P. D. & Utzurrum, R. C. B. 1989. Tent-roosting by Scotophilus kuhlii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in the Philippines. Journal of Tropical Ecology 5:433–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Timm, R. M. 1987. Tent construction by bats of the genera Artibeus and Uroderma. Pp. 187–212 in Patterson, B. D. & Timm, R. M. (eds). Studies in Neotropical mammalogy: essays in honor of Philip Hershkovitz: Fieldiana: Zoology, New Series, No. 39.Google Scholar
Timm, R. M. & Clauson, B. L. 1990. A roof over their feet. Natural History 3/90:55–58.Google Scholar
Timm, R. M. & Lewis, S. E. 1991. Tent construction and use by Uroderma bilobatum in coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) in Costa Rica. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 206:251–260.Google Scholar
Tuttle, M. D. 1976. Collecting techniques. Pp. 71–88 in Baker, R. J., Jones, J. K. Jr. & Carter, D. (eds). Biology of bats of the New World family Phyllostomatidae. Part I. Special Publications, Museum, Texas Tech University, Lubbock. 218 pp.Google Scholar
Uhl, N. W. & Dransfield, J. 1987. Genera palmarum. Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas. 610 pp.Google Scholar