Diet in a bat assemblage in Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Bats perform important ecological functions as consequence of their diet. Food choice is associated with body size and morphology, and therefore, with taxonomic relationships. Here we describe the diet of bats and test for associations between diet and body mass or phylogeny. Bats were captured in mist nets in Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. We collected fecal samples and identified food items from feces. We used cluster analysis to test for associations between diet and body mass or phylogeny. A total of 245 bats were caught in five families, 20 genera and 29 species, and from which we gathered 134 fecal samples. With an average of 5.2 fecal samples (1–28) per species, we identified 26 taxa of food items, which included pollen, fruits of 11 species of plants, four orders of insects and a single vertebrate. Bats were divided into six main groups (guilds) based on diet: frugivore, frugivore-insectivore, insectivore, insectivore-frugivore, insectivore-nectarivore and hematophagous. Guilds vary in the number of species that belong to each and there were differences in the proportion of consumption of each type of food item and/or the different consumption of specific items within the same group. Body mass was not a good indicator of diet, but bat size can play an important role in resource partitioning. Diet is more associated with phylogeny, although taxonomic relationship is not a deterministic indicator of food habits. Some taxonomic groups seem more conservative than others, while the family Phyllostomidae is characterized by a great diet diversification among its representatives.