Abstract
Animals consume, process, use, and allocate energy to survive. The rate at which individuals use energy depends on how they lose heat to the environment, which is influenced by both climate and body mass (Mb), as well as their ability to process food. Apparent digestibility of dry matter (D*m) is commonly used to estimate digestive efficiency and has been positively linked to mass-independent basal metabolic rate (hereafter, BMR) in some birds and mammals. In vespertilionid bats, D*m has been reported to be inversely related to Mb. Since Mb is negatively associated with BMR, a positive relationship between D*m and BMR is expected. However, bats from cold climates tend to exhibit lower BMRs. We measured BMR in 10 bat species from the family Vespertilionidae and gathered information from 29 additional species across a range of climates and Mb (3.4 g to 30.3 g). Using phylogenetic and additive approaches, we tested the relationship between BMR, climate and D*m mathematically modeled. We found that BMR was positive associated with D*m and that this relationship differed by climate. BMR was constant in bats with Mb ≥ 13–17 g and D*m ≤ 74–76%, while BMR increased in smaller species. Our results suggest that D*m could be critical in smaller bats from warm climates due to their high rates of energy use. The different responses we found with other studies can be explained by trade-offs in energy allocation among organs and other metabolically active tissues. We discuss morphological, physiological, and ecological mechanisms underlying D*m variation.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge support by the program CONACYT FOSEC CB2017-2018 (A1-S-39572) Granted to JAB, to all students involved in bats’ captures, and La Malinche, La Mancha, and Quilamula Biological stations for logistical support.
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Conceptualization: Jorge Ayala-Berdon, Methodology: Jorge Ayala-Berdon and Kevin I. Medina-Bello, Formal analysis and investigation: Jorge Ayala-Berdon, Writing - original draft preparation: Jorge Ayala-Berdon, Kevin I. Medina-Bello, Lorena Orozco-Lugo, Ignacio Íñiguez-Dávalos, Antonio Guillén-Servent, and Margarita Martínez-Gómez, Funding acquisition: Jorge Ayala-Berdon.
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Bat care and housing of the bats was carried out with the permission of the Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales de México (SEMARNAT: SGPA/DGVS/06795/21).
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Ayala-Berdon, J., Medina-Bello, K.I., Orozco-Lugo, L. et al. Linking digestive efficiency and climate to basal metabolic rate in bats of the family vespertilionidae. J Comp Physiol B (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-025-01630-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-025-01630-3