A mammal is a vertebrate organism with hairy body that give birth to live young and feed their young with mammary gland. Out of the 29 Orders of mammal, the Order Chiroptera (bats) is the only Order that can fly. Bats is the only mammal that have modified limbs allowing it to achieve the ability to fly (Hickman, 2015). Bats is also the only few mammals that have the ability to use echolocation- the ability to use high frequency sound to navigate the environments. Bats are divided into two groups: megabats and microbats. Megabats does not relies echolocation, but instead relies on vision and smell for navigation. Megabats only feed on fruit, flowers, nectar and pollens. Unlike the megabats, microbats rely on echolocation and they feed on insects.
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To do this, endothermic animal must obtain a substantial amount of food daily for heat production (Altringham, 1996). Bats that live in high latitudes go into torpor during the winter when the temperature falls and when food become scarce. Torpor is characterized by reduction in body temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, metabolism and brief arousals. During torpor, the body temperature drops within 1-2 C of ambient temperature, the heart rate goes from 500-900 to 20-40 beat per minute (Geiser, 2001); and breathing become erratically- they can go for 60-90 minutes without taking a breath. The oxygen consumption rate (use to measure metabolism) is 140 times slower during torpor (Altringham, 1996). Slow metabolism significantly reducing energy expenditure thus allow the bats to survive through the winter on stored …show more content…
By capturing bats at different months prior to hibernation, Kunz et al have found that the body mass of both male and female bats were significantly increase from mid-August to mid-September; the average increase in body mass was 32.9% (2.9g) for male and 26.9% (2.1g) for female (Kunz et al, 1998). Feeding alone is probably not enough for bats to store up fats for the winter, because the population of insects have decreased from its peaks by autumn. Krzanowski (1961) hypothesized that bats were able to stores sufficient amount of fat by reducing their daily energy expenditure. To do this, bats goes into daily torpor at cold place after feeding. During daily torpor, their metabolic rates are reduced to 30%; this allow the bats to saved 10-50% daily energy usage. By placing long-eared bats in a thermal-controlled chamber, Speakman and Rowland (1999) found that bats placed at 30 C for 24 hours did not go into torpor, while bats were at 7 C went into torpor for 14 hours. By measuring oxygen consumption, they found bats that did not go into torpor spent 21·9 kJ/d, while the bats that went into torpor spent only 14·7 kJ/d, which was 33% less. Bats were able to store up fat despite of reduced food supply by spending less energy daily. The amount of body fat accumulated pre-hibernation are sufficient for bats to last through the
To do this, endothermic animal must obtain a substantial amount of food daily for heat production (Altringham, 1996). Bats that live in high latitudes go into torpor during the winter when the temperature falls and when food become scarce. Torpor is characterized by reduction in body temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, metabolism and brief arousals. During torpor, the body temperature drops within 1-2 C of ambient temperature, the heart rate goes from 500-900 to 20-40 beat per minute (Geiser, 2001); and breathing become erratically- they can go for 60-90 minutes without taking a breath. The oxygen consumption rate (use to measure metabolism) is 140 times slower during torpor (Altringham, 1996). Slow metabolism significantly reducing energy expenditure thus allow the bats to survive through the winter on stored …show more content…
By capturing bats at different months prior to hibernation, Kunz et al have found that the body mass of both male and female bats were significantly increase from mid-August to mid-September; the average increase in body mass was 32.9% (2.9g) for male and 26.9% (2.1g) for female (Kunz et al, 1998). Feeding alone is probably not enough for bats to store up fats for the winter, because the population of insects have decreased from its peaks by autumn. Krzanowski (1961) hypothesized that bats were able to stores sufficient amount of fat by reducing their daily energy expenditure. To do this, bats goes into daily torpor at cold place after feeding. During daily torpor, their metabolic rates are reduced to 30%; this allow the bats to saved 10-50% daily energy usage. By placing long-eared bats in a thermal-controlled chamber, Speakman and Rowland (1999) found that bats placed at 30 C for 24 hours did not go into torpor, while bats were at 7 C went into torpor for 14 hours. By measuring oxygen consumption, they found bats that did not go into torpor spent 21·9 kJ/d, while the bats that went into torpor spent only 14·7 kJ/d, which was 33% less. Bats were able to store up fat despite of reduced food supply by spending less energy daily. The amount of body fat accumulated pre-hibernation are sufficient for bats to last through the