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Dietary analysis confirms that Rickett's big-footed bat (Myotis ricketti) is a piscivore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2003

Jie Ma ,
Gareth Jones ,
Shuyi Zhang ,
Junxian Shen ,
Walter Metzner ,
Libiao Zhang  and
Bing Liang
Jie Ma
Affiliation:
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Box 56, Beijing 100080, China Laboratory of Visual Information Processing, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Gareth Jones
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, U.K.
Shuyi Zhang
Affiliation:
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Box 56, Beijing 100080, China
Junxian Shen
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Visual Information Processing, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Walter Metzner
Affiliation:
Department of Physiological Science, UCLA, 621 Charles E. Young Drive S., Los Angeles, CA 90095–1606, U.S.A.
Libiao Zhang
Affiliation:
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Box 56, Beijing 100080, China College of Life Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, 541004, Guilin, China
Bing Liang
Affiliation:
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Box 56, Beijing 100080, China
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Abstract

The diet of Myotis ricketti was examined by faecal analysis, and foraging behaviour was observed in the field. Scales from at least three species of small fish were found in the droppings, together with fragments of insects from six orders. This study demonstrates that M. ricketti is a fish-eating bat. As with other trawling bats in the genus Myotis, M. ricketti emits short, broadband echolocation sounds. The sounds recorded from bats released from the hand swept downward from c. 70 to 28 kHz in 4 ms, and contained most energy at 41 kHz.

Keywords

Myotis rickettidietpiscivoreinsectivoreecholocationBeijing
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Zoology , Volume 261 , Issue 3 , November 2003 , pp. 245 - 248
Copyright
2003 The Zoological Society of London

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