Gong Lixin, Shi Biye, Wu Hui, Feng Jiang, Jiang Tinglei
Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization Northeast Normal University Changchun China.
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Education Ministry Institute of Grassland Science Northeast Normal University Changchun China.
Ecol Evol. 2021 May 17;11(13):8400-8409. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7667. eCollection 2021 Jul.
The mysterious predator-prey interaction between bats and nocturnally migrating birds is a very rare and incredible process in natural ecosystems. So far only three avivorous bat species, including two noctule bats ( and ) and the great evening bat (), are known to regularly prey on songbirds during nocturnal avian migration. The information related to the diversity and the characteristics of the birds as prey and the hunting strategy in both species of noctule bats are already clear. However, the diversity of bird prey in the diet of as confirmed by molecular identification remains unknown. Moreover, like hunting insects, it remains unclear whether the avivorous bats opportunistically prey on birds. Here, we used DNA metabarcoding to investigate the bird prey composition, diversity, and choice in diets of . We found consumed 22 species of seven families from Passeriformes with a body mass of 6-19 g, and preferentially selected small-sized passerine birds for optimizing the benefit/risk trade-off. Moreover, most of the species preyed upon were migratory birds, while four species were local resident birds, indicating that may adopt both aerial-hawking and gleaning strategies on songbirds as do the other two noctules. Further, body mass did not influence in prey choice and predation richness on birds, suggesting is an opportunistic avivorous predator. This study provides novel insights into the avian dietary ecology of and completes the analysis of predator/prey interaction between three avivorous bats and nocturnally migrating birds. Our results also indicate bat predation on birds which occurs as an act of ecological opportunity may subject bats to intense natural selection pressure, causing them access to the new diet-defined adaptive zones.
蝙蝠与夜间迁徙鸟类之间神秘的捕食者 - 猎物相互作用是自然生态系统中极为罕见且令人难以置信的过程。迄今为止，已知仅有三种食鸟蝙蝠，包括两种夜蝠（和）以及大棕蝠（），会在夜间鸟类迁徙期间定期捕食鸣禽。关于这两种夜蝠所捕食鸟类的多样性、作为猎物的鸟类特征以及捕食策略的信息已经明晰。然而，通过分子鉴定确定的大棕蝠饮食中鸟类猎物的多样性仍不为人所知。此外，与捕食昆虫一样，尚不清楚食鸟蝙蝠是否会机会性地捕食鸟类。在此，我们运用DNA宏条形码技术来研究大棕蝠的鸟类猎物组成、多样性及饮食选择。我们发现大棕蝠捕食了雀形目七个科的22种鸟类，这些鸟类体重在6 - 19克之间，并且为了优化收益/风险权衡而优先选择小型雀形目鸟类。此外，所捕食的大多数物种是候鸟，而有四种是当地留鸟，这表明大棕蝠可能像其他两种夜蝠一样，对鸣禽采用空中捕食和搜捕两种策略。再者，大棕蝠的体重并未影响其对鸟类的猎物选择和捕食丰富度，这表明大棕蝠是一种机会性食鸟捕食者。本研究为大棕蝠的鸟类饮食生态学提供了新的见解，并完善了对三种食鸟蝙蝠与夜间迁徙鸟类之间捕食者/猎物相互作用的分析。我们的研究结果还表明，蝙蝠对鸟类的捕食作为一种生态机会行为，可能使蝙蝠面临强烈的自然选择压力，促使它们进入由新饮食定义的适应区。
