Article
Biology
Alberto Bortoni, Sharon M. Swartz, Hamid Vejdani, Aaron J. Corcoran
Summary: A predator's ability to catch prey depends on its navigation skills in response to prey movements. The pursuit behavior of Townsend's big-eared bat varies, as it relies on a slow and agile flight to stealthily approach prey and reacts to prey movements using a combination of pure pursuit and proportional navigation.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Aiqing Lin, Jiqian Li, Yinli Hu, Maojun Zhong, Minglun Yu, Nina Ma, Tingting Wei, Jinhong Luo, Jiang Feng
Summary: A study shows that the defensive tactics of moths, the countertactics of bats, and the availability of moths collectively shape the diets of insectivorous bats. This highlights the importance of using a combination of behavioral experiments and molecular genetic techniques to understand the complex interactions between predators and prey in nature.
Review
Zoology
Natalie Brown, Luis E. E. Escobar
Summary: The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) has a diverse diet and preys on various species. Changes in human activities are expected to affect the interaction between predator and prey. Understanding the selection of prey plays an important role in ecology, epidemiology, and economics. Through a review of D. rotundus diet, we found that it preys on 63 vertebrate species from 21 orders and 45 families, including suitable host species outside its range. Rodents are the most utilized species, but cattle are commonly preyed upon due to their availability and visible bite wounds. D. rotundus tends to prey on diurnal and social species, facilitating convenient and nocturnal predation. This review emphasizes the dietary diversity of D. rotundus and its role as a generalist predator or parasite. Considering its impact on rabies virus transmission and range expansion, understanding its ecology is crucial for public health, wildlife management, and agriculture.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Ruizhu Zhou, Xin Li, Yue Zhu, Qiuya Wang, Hui Wu, Jiang Feng
Summary: Predation risk from bat ultrasonic sound affects moth behavior and population dynamics through non-consumptive effects. Different characteristics of bat echolocation calls encode different levels of predation risk for moths, thus resulting in variable non-consumptive effects. FM calls detectable by moths have greater effects on the moths, negatively impacting their reproductive behavior and energy metabolism.
BIOLOGICAL CONTROL
(2023)
Article
Virology
Horacio A. Delpietro, Roberto G. Russo, Charles E. Rupprecht, Gabriela L. Delpietro
Summary: The common vampire bat is a hemophagous species responsible for paralytic rabies and bite damage in livestock, humans, and wildlife across multiple countries. Current control measures based on poisons are not widely used due to cost and environmental concerns, leading researchers to explore vaccine-based alternatives that can increase livestock resistance to vampire bat saliva. Preliminary findings suggest that inducing immunological resistance against vampire bat anticoagulants and rabies virus through dual delivery of host and pathogen antigens could be a promising strategy for managing vampire populations in a practical, economical, and ecologically relevant manner within a One Health framework.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Imran Razik, Bridget K. G. Brown, Rachel A. Page, Gerald G. Carter
Summary: Individual animals from different species sometimes adopt unrelated orphaned offspring, possibly as a by-product of adaptive traits. The likelihood of adoption may be influenced by a history of cooperative interactions between the mother, adopted offspring, and adopter. Our study with common vampire bats showed increased alloparental care following the death of the mother, supporting the hypothesis that non-kin adoption can be motivated by previous cooperative interactions.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2021)
Editorial Material
Infectious Diseases
Luis E. Escobar, Andres Velasco-Villa, Panayampalli S. Satheshkumar, Yoshinori Nakazawa, Paige Van de Vuurst
Summary: Virus spillover refers to the transmission of a virus from a reservoir host to a new susceptible host, potentially causing disease and death. The complex process involves cross-species transmission and the establishment of the virus in the new host.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF POVERTY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Will L. Hawkes, Kelsey Davies, Scarlett Weston, Kelly Moyes, Jason W. Chapman, Karl R. Wotton
Summary: High altitude mountain passes in the Pyrenees are important stopovers for migrating insects from northern Europe, which also serve as a food source for bats. The study found that nocturnal migratory moths, primarily Noctuid moths, are abundant in the Pyrenees during autumn, and their arrival is closely synchronized with increased activity of Nyctalus spp. and Tadarida teniotis bats. This suggests that these moths are an important food source for both resident and migratory bats in building or maintaining energy reserves.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Juliette J. Rubin, Nich W. Martin, Kathryn E. Sieving, Akito Y. Kawahara
Summary: Traits can be influenced by conflicting evolutionary pressures. Trade-offs can occur when predators limit the conspicuousness of a sexually selected trait or when there is opposition from another selection pressure. Moon moths with long hindwing tails are able to escape bat attacks at night, but this feature may make them more vulnerable to visually foraging predators during the day. However, a study using pastry dough models found that moth models with intact tails did not experience increased attention from avian predators. This suggests that the evolution of long hindwing tails is not limited by diurnal constraints.
Article
Mathematics, Applied
Przemyslaw Gawronski, Alfio Borzi, Krzysztof Kulakowski
Summary: This study investigates the system of two resources and one consumer within the Rosenzweig-MacArthur model, with a Holling type II functional response. The results show that oscillations of C and mutually synchronized R-i are destabilized when consumption rates are modified, leading the system towards fixed points or limit cycles with smaller amplitudes. The consumer is unable to change the preferred resource due to the symmetry between the resources.
Article
Biology
Christian A. Pulver, Emine Celiker, Charlie Woodrow, Inga Geipel, Carl D. Soulsbury, Darron A. Cullen, Stephen M. Rogers, Daniel Veitch, Fernando Montealegre-Z
Summary: The ears of katydids are pressure-time difference receivers capable of sensitive and accurate directional hearing. The pinnae in katydids do not assist in directional hearing for conspecific call frequencies, but instead act as ultrasound detectors. These findings provide important insights into the evolution of katydid auditory systems and their relationship with predators.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Moritz Blumer, Tom Brown, Mariella Bontempo Freitas, Ana Luiza Destro, Juraci A. Oliveira, Ariadna E. Morales, Tilman Schell, Carola Greve, Martin Pippel, David Jebb, Nikolai Hecker, Alexis-Walid Ahmed, Bogdan M. Kirilenko, Maddy Foote, Axel Janke, Burton K. Lim, Michael Hiller
Summary: This study identified gene losses in the vampire bat lineage related to reduced insulin secretion, limited glycogen stores, unique gastric physiology, and potentially enhanced cognitive abilities, shedding light on the genetic basis of adaptations to blood feeding in these bats.
Article
Virology
Zulma E. Rojas-Sereno, Daniel G. Streicker, Andrea Tatiana Medina-Rodriguez, Julio A. Benavides
Summary: Spatial expansions of VBR are occurring in Colombia, with decreasing numbers of newly infected municipalities. To reduce the burden of VBR in Colombia, vaccination coverage should be improved and surveillance capacity should be enhanced.
Article
Infectious Diseases
Daniel J. Becker, Alice Broos, Laura M. Bergner, Diana K. Meza, Nancy B. Simmons, M. Brock Fenton, Sonia Altizer, Daniel G. Streicker
Summary: Vampire bat rabies spread is frequent in northern Belize with high seroprevalence rates, and there is a spatial lag in virus transmission between two locations. Genetic data shows historic panmixia in vampire bats, with rare contemporary dispersal between sites. This suggests a potential for rabies virus spread but limited synchronization in infection dynamics.
TRANSBOUNDARY AND EMERGING DISEASES
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Inon Scharf
Summary: The study found that the spatial overlap between predators and prey affects their behavioral strategies, while the different ambush locations also impact plant aggregation. Herbivores adopt different movement strategies when encountering different types of predators, indicating a complex interaction between predators and prey.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kelsey R. Moreno, Maya Weinberg, Lee Harten, Valeria B. Salinas Ramos, L. Gerardo Herrera M., Gabor a. Czirjak, Yossi Yovel
Summary: This study found that sick-like bats exhibited an enhanced immune response and engaged in behaviors that reduce pathogen transmission, such as perching alone and isolating themselves from social clusters. These sickness behaviors help promote recovery of infected individuals while reducing the risk of pathogen transmission.
ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Eran Amichai, Yossi Yovel
Summary: Animals must encode fundamental physical relationships in their brains, with echolocating bats naturally encoding the speed of sound rather than translating time into distance. The study results shed light on the evolution of innate and flexible sensory perception.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biology
Katya Egert-Berg, Michal Handel, Aya Goldshtein, Ofri Eitan, Ivailo Borissov, Yossi Yovel
Summary: The study found that bats foraging in urban environments were more exploratory, visited more sites per hour, and switched foraging sites more often compared to rural bats, resulting in a more diversified diet. The location of the roost did not determine the foraging ground, with many bats roosting in the countryside but commuting nightly to urban environments for foraging. Bats, unique among small mammals in their ability to move far rapidly, demonstrated how they adapt to environmental changes and exploit the new urban fragmented environment.
Article
Biology
Lee Harten, Nesim Gonceer, Michal Handel, Orit Dash, H. Bobby Fokidis, Yossi Yovel
Summary: The study found that urban fruitbat pups exhibit higher levels of risk-taking, learn faster, but have less exploratory behavior compared to rural fruitbat pups. A cross-fostering experiment suggested a non-genetic maternal effect as pups were more similar to their adoptive mothers. Furthermore, it was discovered that urban lactating mothers have higher cortisol levels in their milk, potentially explaining the transmission of certain personality traits from mother to pup.
Article
Forestry
Harish Prakash, Kasturi Saha, Soham Sahu, Rohini Balakrishnan
Summary: In a human-modified landscape, insectivorous bats such as Megaderma spasma tend to select forest habitats, potentially driven by prey abundance. Remnant forest habitats play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem functions in human-modified landscapes.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Aya Goldshtein, Lee Harten, Yossi Yovel
Summary: A study found that bat pups learn navigation and foraging skills by being carried in flight by their mothers. Before becoming independent, mothers repeatedly place their pups on specific trees and behave in a way that encourages learning. Once independent, pups fly to the same sites and follow similar routes as their mothers before exploring new areas.
Article
Zoology
Pedro A. Aguilar-Rodriguez, Aline Mendez-Rodriguez, Sandra M. Ospina-Garces, M. Cristina MacSwiney G, Yossi Yovel
Summary: Van Gelder's bats were found to consume freshly captured dung beetles with their wings suited for aerial hunting of insects, capturing prey near forest edges on open pastures.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Roei Zigelman, Ofri L. Eitan, Omer Mazar, Anthony L. Weiss, Yossi Yovel
Summary: Animals have the ability to track other animals based on their sound emissions. This study aims to mimic this ability by developing a bio-inspired electronic circuit placed on a miniature drone. The circuit can detect sound signals and steer the drone accordingly to track the sound emitting target. The research shows promising results and has implications for understanding animal behavior and developing related technologies.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Aya Goldshtein, Shimon Akrish, Raja Giryes, Yossi Yovel
Summary: The mechanism by which animals translate sensory information to movement is not well understood, but recent advances in machine learning provide new statistical learning tools to address this question. We used a convolutional neural network to study visual-based navigation in fruit bats, using visual information collected by a drone. Our results demonstrate that a simple feed-forward network can guide the network towards a goal based on sensory input, and can generalize its learning in both time and space, providing insights into the navigation mechanism of animals.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Yuval Werber, Hadar Sextin, Yossi Yovel, Nir Sapir
Summary: Bat movement and behavior are not well-studied due to the difficulties in visual identification caused by their high-altitude and nocturnal activity. This study presents a bat classifier called BATScan, which uses radar data to identify and characterize bat movements. The classifier was constructed using data from 10 radar deployments over a 7-year period and achieved high accuracy and precision through ecological validations.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biology
Yifat Chaya Tarnovsky, Shahar Taiber, Yomiran Nissan, Arjan Boonman, Yaniv Assaf, Gerald S. Wilkinson, Karen B. Avraham, Yossi Yovel
Summary: This study found that bats can also experience age-related hearing loss, with more significant deterioration at higher frequencies. This discovery challenges the previous assumption that bats are immune to age-related hearing loss and suggests that bats make an ideal animal model for studying it.
LIFE SCIENCE ALLIANCE
(2023)
Article
Humanities, Multidisciplinary
Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, Yossi Yovel
Summary: The development of Christianity and Judaism is a topic of debate. New studies reveal that these two religions developed side by side, with multi-layered interactions. This project utilizes computer science tools to analyze limited data sets and uncover the complex evolution of the two religions, offering new insights into their connections.
HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biology
Mor Taub, Aya Goldshtein, Arjan Boonman, Ofri Eitan, Edward Hurme, Stefan Greif, Yossi Yovel
Summary: The rate of sensory update is crucial for any sensory system. Echolocating bats have the ability to adjust their sensory update rate based on the intervals between emissions. Factors such as the signals' frequency, intensity, flight speed, and altitude affect the update rate. Bats control their information update rate according to behavioral mode and maintain sensory continuity.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)