THE FORAGING BEHAVIOR AND ECOLOGY OF ANIMAL-EATING BATS

Information about bat foraging is considered in the context of structural and functional features, the former relating to bats' access to habitats of different complexity and the latter to their behavioural responses. Mechanical features involving wing morphology and perceptual features, such as the ability of echolocating bats to deal with clutter, combined to influence the behavioural flexibility of individuals. This in turn affects access to prey and patterns of community structure. Bats relying on airborne prey appear to be limited to small prey items; those hunting nonairborne targets may take much larger prey. Variation in individual behaviour means that terms such as gleaning, perch hunting, piscivory and carnivory do not accurately define the foraging of animal-eating bats. Sympatric animal-eating bats of similar size may show considerable overlap in prey taken and in patterns of habitat use. -from Author