Diet of the Fishing Bat, Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae)

The diet of Noctilio leporinus was examined on the Island of Culebra, Puerto Rico, by collecting discarded prey below roosts and by making biweekly collections of guano over a 9-month period. Small insects, mostly beetles and moths, predominated in the diet during the wet season. During the dry seas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of mammalogy 1994, Vol.75 (1), p.212-218
Main Author: Brooke, Anne P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Autoecology
Bats
Beetles
Biological and medical sciences
Diet
Dry season
Fish
Fish scales
Foraging
Freshwater fish
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Insect behavior
Insect communities
Insectivorous fishes
Mammalia
Mammalogy
Noctilio leporinus
Vertebrata
Zoology
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Summary:The diet of Noctilio leporinus was examined on the Island of Culebra, Puerto Rico, by collecting discarded prey below roosts and by making biweekly collections of guano over a 9-month period. Small insects, mostly beetles and moths, predominated in the diet during the wet season. During the dry season, pelagic and freshwater fish represented a greater proportion of the diet than did insects. Crabs, scorpions, shrimp, and terrestrial insects were consumed in small quantities. Small beetles, moths, and other insects were caught in flight, whereas fish and terrestrial invertebrates were caught in a bats' feet. N. leporinus is both an aerial insectivore and piscivore, with a flexible foraging strategy that can adjust to local conditions and include terrestrial prey.
ISSN:0022-2372
1545-1542
1545-1542
0022-2372
DOI:10.2307/1382253