Abstract
Differences in diet can explain resource partitioning in apparently similar, sympatric species. Here, we analyzed 1,252 fecal droppings from five species (Eptesicus nilssonii, Myotis brandtii, M. daubentonii, M. mystacinus, and Plecotus auritus) to reveal their dietary niches using fecal DNA metabarcoding. We identified nearly 550 prey species in 13 arthropod orders. Two main orders (Diptera and Lepidoptera) formed the majority of the diet for all species, constituting roughly 80%–90% of the diet. All five species had different dietary assemblages. We also found significant differences in the size of prey species between the bat species. Our results on diet composition remain mostly unchanged when using either read counts as a proxy for quantitative diet or presence–absence data, indicating a strong biological pattern. We conclude that although bats share major components in their ecology (nocturnal life style, insectivory, and echolocation), species differ in feeding behavior, suggesting bats may have distinctive evolutionary strategies. Diet analysis helps illuminate life history traits of various species, adding to sparse ecological knowledge, which can be utilized in conservation planning.
Highlights
Coexistence of sympatric species is facilitated by differences in the use of resources, that is, resource partitioning (Schoener, 1974)
The distribution of bats is constrained by extreme environmental demands and prey availability is more seasonal than elsewhere in their range (Clare et al, 2014; Shively & Barboza, 2017; Shively, Barboza, Doak, & Jung, 2017). The ranges of these five spe‐ cies (Eptesicus nilssonii [Keyserling & Bläsius, 1839], Myotis dauben‐ tonii [Kuhl, 1817], M. mystacinus [Kuhl, 1817], M. brandtii [Eversmann, 1845], and Plecotus auritus [Linnaeus, 1758]) show considerable overlap, suggesting that trophic resource partitioning is important in supporting the species in Fennoscandia
Of the 13 species of bats occurring in Finland, the species sampled here represent the most common and accessible (Myotis daubentonii, Eptesicus nilssonii, M. brandtii, M. mystacinus, and Plecotus auritus)
Summary
Coexistence of sympatric species is facilitated by differences in the use of resources, that is, resource partitioning (Schoener, 1974). Because insectivorous bats opportunistically consume prey that may be periodically abundant (Vesterinen et al, 2013), this leads to significant temporal changes in the diet (Vesterinen et al, 2016), but could result in a large overlap in dietary niches, suggesting resource partitioning oc‐ curs in other ecological dimensions. The distribution of bats is constrained by extreme environmental demands and prey availability is more seasonal than elsewhere in their range (Clare et al, 2014; Shively & Barboza, 2017; Shively, Barboza, Doak, & Jung, 2017) The ranges of these five spe‐ cies (Eptesicus nilssonii [Keyserling & Bläsius, 1839], Myotis dauben‐ tonii [Kuhl, 1817], M. mystacinus [Kuhl, 1817], M. brandtii [Eversmann, 1845], and Plecotus auritus [Linnaeus, 1758]) show considerable overlap, suggesting that trophic resource partitioning is important in supporting the species in Fennoscandia. To the best of our knowledge, of the species studied here, molecular data on diet exist only for M. daubentonii (Galan et al, 2018; Krüger, Clare, Greif, et al, 2014; Krüger, Clare, Symondson, Keišs, & Pētersons, 2014; Vesterinen et al, 2013, 2016 ), the dietary contents of all species have previously been described through morphological analysis of fecal remains (Rydell, 1986; Vaughan, 1997)
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