ArticleOecologia2017
Hung out to dry? Intraspecific variation in water loss in a hibernating bat.
Article in Oecologia, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- How to keep your cool: heat tolerance and thermoregulatory strategies of a cold adapted insectivorous bat.Oecologia · 2025Article
- A Palearctic view of a bat fungal disease.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2025Review
- The effects of humidity on thermoregulatory physiology of a small songbird.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Physiological and behavioural adaptations by big brown bats hibernating in dry rock crevices.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2024Article
- Hibernating female big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) adjust huddling and drinking behaviour, but not arousal frequency, in response to low humidity.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Similar hibernation physiology in bats across broad geographic ranges.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2022Article
- Disparate roost sites drive intraspecific physiological variation in a Malagasy bat.Oecologia · 2022Article
- Interspecific variation in evaporative water loss and temperature response, but not metabolic rate, among hibernating bats.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- What is winter? Modeling spatial variation in bat host traits and hibernation and their implications for overwintering energetics.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Body mass and hibernation microclimate may predict bat susceptibility to white-nose syndrome.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hibernation is a period of water deficit for some small mammals, and humidity strongly influences hibernation patterns. Dry conditions reduce length of torpor bouts, stimulate arousals, and decrease overwinter survival. To mitigate these effects, many small mammals hibernate in near saturated (100% RH) conditions. However, big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) hibernate in a wider variety of conditions and tolerate lower humidity than most other bats. To assess arid tolerance in this species, we compared torpid metabolic rates (TMR) and rates of total evaporative water loss (TEWL) between two populations of E. fuscus with differing winter ecologies: one that hibernates in humid karst caves and one that hibernates in relatively dry rock crevices. We used flow-through respirometry to measure TMR and TEWL of bats in humid and dry conditions. Torpid metabolic rates did not differ between populations or with humidity treatments. Rates of TEWL were similar between populations in humid conditions, but higher for cave-hibernating bats than crevice-hibernating bats in dry conditions. Our results suggest that E. fuscus hibernating in arid environments have mechanisms to decrease evaporative water loss that are not evident at more humid sites. Drought tolerance may facilitate the sedentary nature of the species, allowing them to tolerate more variable microclimates during hibernation and thus increasing the availability of overwintering habitat. The ability to survive arid conditions may also lessen the susceptibility of E. fuscus to diseases that affect water balance.
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