Graduate Program in Zoology, State University of Sao Paulo (UNESP), Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
Spatial Ecology and Conservation lab (LEEC), Department of Ecology, State University of Sao Paulo (UNESP), Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 2019 Nov;237:110537. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2019.110537. Epub 2019 Aug 7.
Hematological measures are increasingly being used to analyse the impact of several stressors on the physiological condition of animals. Landscape degradation and habitat loss impacts terrestrial and volant mammals occurrence, however rarely the effects of these factors on physiological conditions and stress levels were analyzed. Here, we measured several hematological parameters to analyse the impacts of habitat amount on the physiological condition (body condition and health status) and stress level of four species of Neotropical fruit-eating bats. We measured hematocrit, hemoglobin concentration and calculated the hemoglobin-hematocrit residuals (HHR) and mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), as well as the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (N/L ratio) of four common frugivores bat species (Artibeus lituratus, Artibeus planirostris, Sturnira lilium and Carollia perspicilatta). The bats were captured in 20 landscapes within the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, in a gradient from 10 to 85% of habitat amount. We tested the influence of habitat amount, species, sex and reproductive condition on the physiological variables. We fit GLM to each of the response variables and performed a model selection to identify the most plausible to explain the patterns. N/L ratio was negatively influenced by habitat amount, while the other variables were not related to habitat amount. Overall, we found that habitat loss apparently did not jeopardize the physiological condition of fruit-eating bats and that stress level apparently is not high enough to have any deleterious effect. We suggest that the increase in glucocorticoids, indirectly assessed by the N/L ratio, is a predictive, beneficial response, that allow these bats to cope efficiently with the stressors associated with habitat loss.
血液学指标越来越多地被用于分析多种应激源对动物生理状况的影响。景观退化和生境丧失影响着陆生和飞行哺乳动物的出现，但这些因素对生理状况和应激水平的影响很少被分析。在这里，我们测量了几种血液学参数，以分析生境数量对四种新热带食果蝙蝠的生理状况（身体状况和健康状况）和应激水平的影响。我们测量了红细胞压积、血红蛋白浓度，并计算了血红蛋白-红细胞压积残差（HHR）和平均红细胞血红蛋白浓度（MCHC），以及四种常见食果蝙蝠物种（Artibeus lituratus、Artibeus planirostris、Sturnira lilium 和 Carollia perspicilatta）的中性粒细胞与淋巴细胞比值（N/L 比值）。蝙蝠是在大西洋森林生物多样性热点地区的 20 个景观中捕获的，生境数量从 10%到 85%不等。我们测试了生境数量、物种、性别和繁殖状况对生理变量的影响。我们对每个响应变量进行 GLM 拟合，并进行模型选择，以确定最合理的模型来解释这些模式。N/L 比值受生境数量的负影响，而其他变量与生境数量无关。总的来说，我们发现生境丧失显然没有危及食果蝙蝠的生理状况，而应激水平显然没有高到产生任何有害影响。我们认为，间接通过 N/L 比值评估的糖皮质激素的增加是一种预测性的、有益的反应，使这些蝙蝠能够有效地应对与生境丧失相关的应激源。
