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Physiological Ecology Of Bat Migration, Liam P. Mcguire
Physiological Ecology Of Bat Migration, Liam P. Mcguire
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Migration is perhaps the most poorly understood aspect of bat biology and the underlying physiological basis is virtually unstudied. Although distantly related, bats and birds are both endothermic flying vertebrates and bird migration physiology has been studied for decades. Therefore, I used migratory birds as a model system to make predictions regarding the physiological ecology of bat migration.
First, I compared brain size of migratory and sedentary bat species. Migratory species have smaller brains which suggests the costs of carrying and maintaining a large brain are incompatible with the demands of migration. Next, I studied silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans …