Free-flying groups of <I>P. auritus </I>were taken into captivity and fed on noctuid moths supplemented with mealworms. Roosting behaviour of lactating and non-reproductive bats was studied using infra-red sensitive video recording. Direct contact between mother and young declined from 90% of records on day 1 of lactation to 15% by day 50. There was a significant decline in grooming of the young, carrying behaviour and visits to the roost at night during lactation. Lactating females displayed significantly lower levels of total grooming activity (i.e. self grooming added to grooming of the young) compared to self grooming in non-reproductive females. The use of elimination rates of <SUP>65</SUP>Zn to measure individual food intakes, was validated in white mice <I>(Mus. sp.)</I>. Whole body elimination of <SUP>65</SUP>Zn followed a biexponential decline in counts over days 1 to 48 after labelling. Rate of turnover in the second phase of elimination, incorporating the variation in zinc body pool size, was the best predictor of food intake, and accounted for 60% of the variability over days 37 to 48. The <SUP>65</SUP>Zn elimination method, validated in mice, was used to estimate relative food intake in groups of bats. The rate of elimination of <SUP>65</SUP>Zn over the second phase of the biexponential decline was significantly greater for lactating females than non-reproductive females. This was most likely due to an increased food consumption by these bats. Measures of food consumption were obtained by subtracting weights of uneaten food from weights of food supplied to groups of bats comprising different numbers of lactating and non-reproductive bats. The average dry food consumption for non-reproductive and lactating bats was 1.52 and 2.05 g. bat<SUP>-1</SUP>.day<SUP>-1</SUP> respectively.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:593087 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | McLean, J. A. |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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