Biomechanics of hover performance in Neotropical hummingbirds versus bats

Oxygen consumption during hover-feeding in free-ranging Anna hummingbirds.

Rates of oxygen consumption during hover-feeding of wild, unrestrained, adult male Anna hummingbirds (Calypte anna) were measured with an artificial outdoor feeder converted into a respirometer mask. A computer sampled changes in O2 concentration in air drawn through the mask, automatically detecting the presence of a hummingbird from a drop in the O2 concentration, and photoelectrically timing...

Sugar Metabolism in Hummingbirds and Nectar Bats

Hummingbirds and nectar bats coevolved with the plants they visit to feed on floral nectars rich in sugars. The extremely high metabolic costs imposed by small size and hovering flight in combination with reliance upon sugars as their main source of dietary calories resulted in convergent evolution of a suite of structural and functional traits. These allow high rates of aerobic energy metaboli...

Bacula of Some Neotropical Bats

Highly diversified coronaviruses in neotropical bats.

Bats host a broad diversity of coronaviruses (CoVs), including close relatives of human pathogens. There is only limited data on neotropical bat CoVs. We analysed faecal, blood and intestine specimens from 1562 bats sampled in Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Brazil for CoVs by broad-range PCR. CoV RNA was detected in 50 bats representing nine different species, both frugivorous and insectivorou...

Fur versus feathers: pollen delivery by bats and hummingbirds and consequences for pollen production.

One floral characteristic associated with bat pollination (chiropterophily) is copious pollen production, a pattern we confirmed in a local comparison of hummingbird- and bat-adapted flowers from a cloud forest site in Ecuador. Previous authors have suggested that wasteful pollen transfer by bats accounted for the pattern. Here we propose and test a new hypothesis: bats select for increased pol...