Riqueza de Especies y Variabilidad Trófica de Murciélagos en Zonas de Riesgo de Rabia de Origen Silvestre en Izabal, Guatemala

Abstract

Izabal, Guatemala, is considered a high-risk region of bovine paralytic rabies and also has documented cases of common vampire bat attacks to humans in villages in marginal conditions. Measures to control vampire bat populations are commonly undertaken, however, when not properly supervised, they often ignore selective techniques and result in the killing of harmless species. In order to document species richness and to compare the proportion of other guilds, bats were captured using mist nets in farms with cattle that were recurrently injured by common vampire bats. A total of 280 bats belonging to 13 genera and 18 species were documented, with Artibeus , Sturnira , Desmodus and Glossophaga being the most common genera in order of abundance. For a sample size of 40 individuals a variation of seven to 11 species was calculated for all sites. The proportion of common vampire bats in contrast to other guilds present was significantly lower (x2 = 18.379, d. f. = 3, P = 0.0004). The bats documented along with the common vampire bat might be providing important ecosystem services that can be suppressed as a consequence of their decreasing population sizes or the disappearance of their colonies.