Why Nectar-Feeding Bats Need A ‘Power Drink’ To Fly
In a second experiment, Voigt and Speakman measured how fast the bats used their meagre fat stores. “We found the bats depleted almost 60% of their fat stores each day, but even this phenomenal rate was still barely enough to sustain their metabolism when nectar was absent. This underlines how accurately these bats must balance their energy requirements every day and how vulnerable they are to ecological perturbations that might interrupt their fuel supply for even a short period,” they say.
Nectar-feeding bats live in south and central America and are among the smallest of all living mammals, weighing less than 10g. They feed at night and can ingest up to 150% of their body weight as nectar.
That really is amazing.
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February 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
“In two caves the researchers studied last year — that together had an estimated 18,000 bats — up to 97 percent died…”
July 29th, 2008 at 8:19 am
“But cut the shrew some slack — it doesn’t eat anything else. Let’s see you subsist on nothing but beer, light or not, and stay sober…”