飛行中のコウモリの心臓に耳を傾ける研究者たち(Researchers listen to the hearts of bats in flight)

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2024-07-04 マックス・プランク研究所

マックス・プランク動物行動研究所とコンスタンツ大学の研究者たちは、ヨーロッパに生息するコウモリのエネルギー消費を調査しました。研究では小型の心拍数送信機をコウモリに装着し、その心拍数を記録しました。春にはコウモリが「トーポル」という省エネ状態に入り、心拍数が6拍/分まで低下しますが、夏には心拍数が900拍/分に達し、エネルギー消費が42%増加しました。夏は餌が豊富なため、オスのコウモリは精子を生産するために昼間も活動し、1夜で多くの昆虫を捕食します。この研究は、気候変動がコウモリに与える影響を予測するための貴重な知見を提供します。

<関連情報>

心拍数モニタリングにより、夜行性コウモリのオスにおける季節によるエネルギートレードオフの違いが明らかになった Heart rate monitoring reveals differential seasonal energetic trade-offs in male noctule bats

Lara Keicher,J. Ryan Shipley,Melina T. Dietzer,Martin Wikelski and Dina K. N. Dechmann
Proceedings of the Royal Society B  Published:10 July 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.0855

飛行中のコウモリの心臓に耳を傾ける研究者たち(Researchers listen to the hearts of bats in flight)

Abstract

Understanding how animals meet their daily energy requirements is critical in our rapidly changing world. Small organisms with high metabolic rates can conserve stored energy when food availability is low or increase energy intake when energetic requirements are high, but how they balance this in the wild remains largely unknown. Using miniaturized heart rate transmitters, we continuously quantified energy expenditure, torpor use and foraging behaviour of free-ranging male bats (Nyctalus noctula) in spring and summer. In spring, bats used torpor extensively, characterized by lowered heart rates and consequently low energy expenditures. In contrast, in summer, bats consistently avoided torpor, even though they could have used this low-energy mode. As a consequence, daytime heart rates in summer were three times as high compared with the heart rates in spring. Daily energy use increased by 42% during summer, despite lower thermogenesis costs at higher ambient temperatures. Likely, as a consequence, bats nearly doubled their foraging duration. Overall, our results indicate that summer torpor avoidance, beneficial for sperm production and self-maintenance, comes with a high energetic cost. The ability to identify and monitor such vulnerable energetic life-history stages is particularly important to predict how species will deal with increasing temperatures and changes in their resource landscapes.

生物化学工学
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