Berrío-Martínez Jineth, Kaiser Samuel, Nowak Michelle, Page Rachel A, Carter Gerald G
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancón, Panama.
Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States of America.
PeerJ. 2019 Aug 5;7:e7448. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7448. eCollection 2019.
The life history strategy of common vampire bats () suggests that learning might play a role in development of their foraging skills. We took advantage of 12 captive births in a study colony of vampire bats to test the role of past experience in two aspects of feeding. First, we compared preferences for blood temperature in 32 wild-born vampire bats versus 11 captive-born vampire bats that had only previously fed on blood of ambient temperature or colder. We found no evidence for a preference in either group for blood presented at 4 °C versus 37 °C. Second, we tested whether captive-born vampire bats with no previous experience of feeding on live animals could successfully feed on a live chicken. Five of 12 naïve captive-born bats were able to bite the chicken and draw blood, but only one bat gained more than 5% of body mass. We were unable to reasonably compare their feeding performance with that of wild-born bats because only two of three wild-born, short-term captive bats fed on the chicken and none of the seven wild-born, long-term captive mothers attempted to feed. This unexpected lack of feeding might be due to a previously reported age-dependent neophobia. When six of the captive-born bats were released in the wild, they appeared to feed successfully because they survived for more than three consecutive nights. We suggest further tests that would better clarify the role of learning in the development of foraging in vampire bats.
普通吸血蝙蝠（）的生活史策略表明，学习可能在其觅食技能的发展中发挥作用。我们利用一个吸血蝙蝠研究群体中的12次圈养出生个体，来测试过去的经验在进食的两个方面所起的作用。首先，我们比较了32只野生出生的吸血蝙蝠与11只圈养出生、此前只以环境温度或更低温度的血液为食的吸血蝙蝠对血液温度的偏好。我们没有发现任何证据表明这两组蝙蝠对4℃和37℃的血液有偏好。其次，我们测试了此前没有活体动物进食经验的圈养出生的吸血蝙蝠是否能成功地以活鸡为食。12只没有经验的圈养出生的蝙蝠中有5只能够咬住鸡并吸血，但只有一只蝙蝠获得了超过其体重5%的血量。我们无法合理地将它们的进食表现与野生出生的蝙蝠进行比较，因为三只野生出生、短期圈养的蝙蝠中只有两只以鸡为食，而七只野生出生、长期圈养的母蝙蝠都没有尝试进食。这种意外的进食缺乏可能是由于先前报道的与年龄相关的新恐惧症。当六只圈养出生的蝙蝠被放归野外时，它们似乎成功进食了，因为它们连续存活了三个多晚上。我们建议进行进一步的测试，以更好地阐明学习在吸血蝙蝠觅食发展中的作用。
