Habitat amount partially affects physiological condition and stress level in Neotropical fruit-eating bats

Autor(es)

Miguel, Pedro Henrique ^[1] ; Kerches-Rogeri, Patricia ^[2] ; Niebuhr, Bernardo Brandao ^{[2, 3, 4]} ; Souza Cruz, Rafael Alves ^[2] ; Ribeiro, Milton Cezar ^{[1, 2]} ; da Cruz Neto, Ariovaldo Pereira ^{[5, 1]}

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] State Univ Sao Paulo UNESP, Grad Program Zool, Rio Claro, SP - Brazil

^[2] State Univ Sao Paulo UNESP, Dept Ecol, Spatial Ecol & Conservat Lab LEEC, Rio Claro, SP - Brazil

^[3] Inst Chico Mendes Conservacao Biodiversidade ICMB, Ctr Nacl Pesquisa & Conservacao Mamiferos Carnivo, Atibaia, SP - Brazil

^[4] Inst Procarnivoros, Atibaia, SP - Brazil

^[5] State Univ Sao Paulo UNESP, Dept Zool, Rio Claro, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY A-MOLECULAR & INTEGRATIVE PHYSIOLOGY; v. 237, NOV 2019.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

Hematological measures are increasingly being used to analyse the impact of several stressors on the physiological condition of animals. Landscape degradation and habitat loss impacts terrestrial and volant mammals occurrence, however rarely the effects of these factors on physiological conditions and stress levels were analyzed. Here, we measured several hematological parameters to analyse the impacts of habitat amount on the physiological condition (body condition and health status) and stress level of four species of Neotropical fruit eating bats. We measured hematocrit, hemoglobin concentration and calculated the hemoglobin-hematocrit residuals (HHR) and mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), as well as the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (N/L ratio) of four common frugivores bat species (Artibeus lituratus, Artibeus planirostris, Sturnira lilium and Carollia perspicilatta). The bats were captured in 20 landscapes within the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, in a gradient from 10 to 85% of habitat amount. We tested the influence of habitat amount, species, sex and reproductive condition on the physiological variables. We fit GLM to each of the response variables and performed a model selection to identify the most plausible to explain the patterns. N/L ratio was negatively influenced by habitat amount, while the other variables were not related to habitat amount. Overall, we found that habitat loss apparently did not jeopardize the physiological condition of fruit-eating bats and that stress level apparently is not high enough to have any deleterious effect. We suggest that the increase in glucocorticoids, indirectly assessed by the N/L ratio, is a predictive, beneficial response, that allow these bats to cope efficiently with the stressors associated with habitat loss. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/50421-2 - Novos métodos de amostragem e ferramentas estatísticas para pesquisa em biodiversidade: integrando ecologia de movimento com ecologia de população e comunidade
• Beneficiário: Milton Cezar Ribeiro
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular
• Processo FAPESP: 14/16320-7 - Impactos das mudanças climáticas e ambientais sobre a fauna: uma abordagem integrativa
• Beneficiário: Carlos Arturo Navas Iannini
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa de Pesquisa sobre Mudanças Climáticas Globais - Temático