Brown rats prey on bats in urban caves near Hamburg, impacting bat populations. Mitigation strategies are crucial for bat conservation in rat-dominated city environments. Research highlights the ecological importance.
A substantial portion of the carbon dioxide the bats exhaled during a workout (up to 60 percent) came from metabolizing fuel other than the carbs or fats that typically power a running mammal, the team reports November 6 in Biology Letters.
“I applaud Gual-Suárez et al‘s paper on both examining live animals, and comparing how the results would have born no relation to nature if they’d have used museum specimens instead,” says Linda Reinhold, a zoologist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia.
