SNAPSHOT USA 2021: A third coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States

SNAPSHOT USA is a multicontributor, long-term camera trap survey designed to survey mammals across the United States. Participants are recruited through community networks and directly through a website application (https://www.snapshot-usa.org/). The growing Snapshot dataset is useful, for example, for tracking wildlife population responses to land use, land cover, and climate changes across spatial and temporal scales. Here we present the SNAPSHOT USA 2021 dataset, the third national camera trap survey across the US. Data were collected across 109 camera trap arrays and included 1711 camera sites. The total effort equaled 71,519 camera trap nights and resulted in 172,507 sequences of animal observations. Sampling effort varied among camera trap arrays, with a minimum of 126 camera trap nights, a maximum of 3355 nights, a median 546 nights, and a mean 656 ± 431 nights. This third dataset comprises 51 camera trap arrays that were surveyed during 2019, 2020, and 2021, along with 71 camera trap arrays that were surveyed in 2020 and 2021. All raw data and accompanying metadata are stored on Wildlife Insights (https://www.wildlifeinsights.org/), and are publicly available upon acceptance of the data papers. SNAPSHOT USA aims to sample multiple ecoregions in the United States with adequate representation of each ecoregion according to its relative size. Currently, the relative density of camera trap arrays varies by an order of magnitude for the various ecoregions (0.22-5.9 arrays per 100,000 km2), emphasizing the need to increase sampling effort by further recruiting and retaining contributors. There are no copyright restrictions on these data. We request that authors cite this paper when using these data, or a subset of these data, for publication. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.

Ecological countermeasures to prevent pathogen spillover and subsequent pandemics

Substantial global attention is focused on how to reduce the risk of future pandemics. Reducing this risk requires investment in prevention, preparedness, and response. Although preparedness and response have received significant focus, prevention, especially the prevention of zoonotic spillover, remains largely absent from global conversations. This oversight is due in part to the lack of a clear definition of prevention and lack of guidance on how to achieve it. To address this gap, we elucidate the mechanisms linking environmental change and zoonotic spillover using spillover of viruses from bats as a case study. We identify ecological interventions that can disrupt these spillover mechanisms and propose policy frameworks for their implementation. Recognizing that pandemics originate in ecological systems, we advocate for integrating ecological approaches alongside biomedical approaches in a comprehensive and balanced pandemic prevention strategy.

Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape

Wildlife must adapt to human presence to survive in the Anthropocene, so it is critical to understand species responses to humans in different contexts. We used camera trapping as a lens to view mammal responses to changes in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 163 species sampled in 102 projects around the world, changes in the amount and timing of animal activity varied widely. Under higher human activity, mammals were less active in undeveloped areas but unexpectedly more active in developed areas while exhibiting greater nocturnality. Carnivores were most sensitive, showing the strongest decreases in activity and greatest increases in nocturnality. Wildlife managers must consider how habituation and uneven sensitivity across species may cause fundamental differences in human-wildlife interactions along gradients of human influence.

Robust evidence for bats as reservoir hosts is lacking in most African virus studies: a review and call to optimize sampling and conserve bats

Africa experiences frequent emerging disease outbreaks among humans, with bats often proposed as zoonotic pathogen hosts. We comprehensively reviewed virus-bat findings from papers published between 1978 and 2020 to evaluate the evidence that African bats are reservoir and/or bridging hosts for viruses that cause human disease. We present data from 162 papers (of 1322) with original findings on (1) numbers and species of bats sampled across bat families and the continent, (2) how bats were selected for study inclusion, (3) if bats were terminally sampled, (4) what types of ecological data, if any, were recorded and (5) which viruses were detected and with what methodology. We propose a scheme for evaluating presumed virus-host relationships by evidence type and quality, using the contrasting available evidence for Orthoebolavirus versus Orthomarburgvirus as an example. We review the wording in abstracts and discussions of all 162 papers, identifying key framing terms, how these refer to findings, and how they might contribute to people's beliefs about bats. We discuss the impact of scientific research communication on public perception and emphasize the need for strategies that minimize human-bat conflict and support bat conservation. Finally, we make recommendations for best practices that will improve virological study metadata.

Conservation: Tracking bats around wind turbines

Alternative energy is essential for a green future but comes at a high risk for animals. New research shows that forest-based wind turbines may create an ecological trap for bats that typically are repelled by wind turbines.

SNAPSHOT USA 2020: A second coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic

Managing wildlife populations in the face of global change requires regular data on the abundance and distribution of wild animals, but acquiring these over appropriate spatial scales in a sustainable way has proven challenging. Here we present the data from Snapshot USA 2020, a second annual national mammal survey of the USA. This project involved 152 scientists setting camera traps in a standardized protocol at 1485 locations across 103 arrays in 43 states for a total of 52,710 trap-nights of survey effort. Most (58) of these arrays were also sampled during the same months (September and October) in 2019, providing a direct comparison of animal populations in 2 years that includes data from both during and before the COVID-19 pandemic. All data were managed by the eMammal system, with all species identifications checked by at least two reviewers. In total, we recorded 117,415 detections of 78 species of wild mammals, 9236 detections of at least 43 species of birds, 15,851 detections of six domestic animals and 23,825 detections of humans or their vehicles. Spatial differences across arrays explained more variation in the relative abundance than temporal variation across years for all 38 species modeled, although there are examples of significant site-level differences among years for many species. Temporal results show how species allocate their time and can be used to study species interactions, including between humans and wildlife. These data provide a snapshot of the mammal community of the USA for 2020 and will be useful for exploring the drivers of spatial and temporal changes in relative abundance and distribution, and the impacts of species interactions on daily activity patterns. There are no copyright restrictions, and please cite this paper when using these data, or a subset of these data, for publication.

A conceptual framework to predict social information use based on food ephemerality and individual resource requirements

Environmental variability poses a range of challenges to foraging animals trying to meet their energetic needs. Where food patches are unpredictable but shareable, animals can use social information to locate patches more efficiently or reliably. However, resource unpredictability can be heterogeneous and complex. The behavioural strategies animals employ to exploit such resources also vary, particularly if, when, and where animals use available social information. We reviewed the literature on social information use by foraging animals and developed a novel framework that integrates four elements - (1) food resource persistence; (2) the relative value of social information use; (3) behavioural context (opportunistic or coordinated); and (4) location of social information use - to predict and characterize four strategies of social information use - (1) local enhancement; (2) group facilitation; (3) following; and (4) recruitment. We validated our framework by systematically reviewing the growing empirical literature on social foraging in bats, an ideal model taxon because they exhibit extreme diversity in ecological niche and experience low predation risk while foraging but function at high energy expenditures, which selects for efficient foraging behaviours. Our framework's predictions agreed with the observed natural behaviour of bats and identified key knowledge gaps for future studies. Recent advancements in technology, methods, and analysis will facilitate additional studies in bats and other taxa to further test the framework and our conception of the ecological and evolutionary forces driving social information use. Understanding the links between food distribution, social information use, and foraging behaviour will help elucidate social interactions, group structure, and the evolution of sociality for species across the animal kingdom.

SNAPSHOT USA 2019: a coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States

With the accelerating pace of global change, it is imperative that we obtain rapid inventories of the status and distribution of wildlife for ecological inferences and conservation planning. To address this challenge, we launched the SNAPSHOT USA project, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife populations using camera traps across the United States. For our first annual survey, we compiled data across all 50 states during a 14-week period (17 August-24 November of 2019). We sampled wildlife at 1,509 camera trap sites from 110 camera trap arrays covering 12 different ecoregions across four development zones. This effort resulted in 166,036 unique detections of 83 species of mammals and 17 species of birds. All images were processed through the Smithsonian's eMammal camera trap data repository and included an expert review phase to ensure taxonomic accuracy of data, resulting in each picture being reviewed at least twice. The results represent a timely and standardized camera trap survey of the United States. All of the 2019 survey data are made available herein. We are currently repeating surveys in fall 2020, opening up the opportunity to other institutions and cooperators to expand coverage of all the urban-wild gradients and ecophysiographic regions of the country. Future data will be available as the database is updated at eMammal.si.edu/snapshot-usa, as will future data paper submissions. These data will be useful for local and macroecological research including the examination of community assembly, effects of environmental and anthropogenic landscape variables, effects of fragmentation and extinction debt dynamics, as well as species-specific population dynamics and conservation action plans. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this paper when using the data for publication.

Bats use topography and nocturnal updrafts to fly high and fast

During the day, flying animals exploit the environmental energy landscape by seeking out thermal or orographic uplift, or extracting energy from wind gradients.^1-6 However, most of these energy sources are not thought to be available at night because of the lower thermal potential in the nocturnal atmosphere, as well as the difficulty of locating features that generate uplift. Despite this, several bat species have been observed hundreds to thousands of meters above the ground.^7-9 Individuals make repeated, energetically costly high-altitude ascents,^10-13 and others fly at some of the fastest speeds observed for powered vertebrate flight.¹⁴ We hypothesized that bats use orographic uplift to reach high altitudes,^9,15-17 and that both this uplift and bat high-altitude ascents would be highly predictable.¹⁸ By superimposing detailed three-dimensional GPS tracking of European free-tailed bats (Tadarida teniotis) on high-resolution regional wind data, we show that bats do indeed use the energy of orographic uplift to climb to over 1,600 m, and also that they reach maximum sustained self-powered airspeeds of 135 km h^-1. We show that wind and topography can predict areas of the landscape able to support high-altitude ascents, and that bats use these locations to reach high altitudes while reducing airspeeds. Bats then integrate wind conditions to guide high-altitude ascents, deftly exploiting vertical wind energy in the nocturnal landscape.

Bats use topography and nocturnal updrafts to fly high and fast

During the day, flying animals exploit the environmental energy landscape by seeking out thermal or orographic uplift, or extracting energy from wind gradients.^1-6 However, most of these energy sources are not thought to be available at night because of the lower thermal potential in the nocturnal atmosphere, as well as the difficulty of locating features that generate uplift. Despite this, several bat species have been observed hundreds to thousands of meters above the ground.^7-9 Individuals make repeated, energetically costly high-altitude ascents,^10-13 and others fly at some of the fastest speeds observed for powered vertebrate flight.¹⁴ We hypothesized that bats use orographic uplift to reach high altitudes,^9,15-17 and that both this uplift and bat high-altitude ascents would be highly predictable.¹⁸ By superimposing detailed three-dimensional GPS tracking of European free-tailed bats (Tadarida teniotis) on high-resolution regional wind data, we show that bats do indeed use the energy of orographic uplift to climb to over 1,600 m, and also that they reach maximum sustained self-powered airspeeds of 135 km h^-1. We show that wind and topography can predict areas of the landscape able to support high-altitude ascents, and that bats use these locations to reach high altitudes while reducing airspeeds. Bats then integrate wind conditions to guide high-altitude ascents, deftly exploiting vertical wind energy in the nocturnal landscape.

Foraging movements are density-independent among straw-coloured fruit bats

Intraspecific competition in large aggregations of animals should generate density-dependent effects on foraging patterns. To test how large differences in colony size affect foraging movements, we tracked seasonal movements of the African straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) from four colonies that range from 4000 up to 10 million animals. Contrary to initial predictions, we found that mean distance flown per night (9-99 km), number of nightly foraging sites (2-3) and foraging and commuting times were largely independent of colony size. Bats showed classic central-place foraging and typically returned to the same day roost each night. However, roost switching was evident among individuals in three of the four colonies especially towards the onset of migration. The relatively consistent foraging patterns across seasons and colonies indicate that these bats seek out roosts close to highly productive landscapes. Once foraging effort starts to increase due to local resource depletion they migrate to landscapes with seasonally increasing resources. This minimizes high intraspecific competition and may help to explain why long-distance migration, otherwise rare in bats, evolved in this highly gregarious species.

Metabolic rate in common shrews is unaffected by temperature, leading to lower energetic costs through seasonal size reduction

Small endothermic mammals have high metabolisms, particularly at cold temperatures. In the light of this, some species have evolved a seemingly illogical strategy: they reduce the size of the brain and several organs to become even smaller in winter. To test how this morphological strategy affects energy consumption across seasonally shifting ambient temperatures, we measured oxygen consumption and behaviour in the three seasonal phenotypes of the common shrew (Sorex araneus), which differ in size by about 20%. Body mass was the main driver of oxygen consumption, not the reduction of metabolically expensive brain mass. Against our expectations, we found no change in relative oxygen consumption with low ambient temperature. Thus, smaller body size in winter resulted in significant absolute energy savings. This finding could only partly be explained by an increase of lower cost behaviours in the activity budgets. Our findings highlight that these shrews manage to avoid one of the most fundamental and intuitive rules of ecology, allowing them to subsist with lower resource availability and successfully survive the harsh conditions of winter.

Host Biology and Anthropogenic Factors Affect Hepadnavirus Infection in a Neotropical Bat

The tent-making bat hepatitis B virus (TBHBV) is a hepadnavirus closely related to human hepatitis B virus. The ecology of TBHBV is unclear. We show that it is widespread and highly diversified in Peters' tent-making bats (Uroderma bilobatum) within Panama, while local prevalence varied significantly between sample sites, ranging from 0 to 14.3%. Females showed significantly higher prevalence than males, and pregnant females were more often acutely infected than non-reproductive ones. The distribution of TBHBV in bats was significantly affected by forest cover, with higher infection rates in areas with lower forest cover. Our data indicate that loss of natural habitat may lead to positive feedback on the biotic factors driving infection possibility. These results underline the necessity of multidisciplinary studies for a better understanding of mechanisms in pathogen-host relationships and for predictions in disease ecology.

Common noctules exploit low levels of the aerosphere

Aerial habitats present a challenge to find food across a large potential search volume, particularly for insectivorous bats that rely on echolocation calls with limited detection range and may forage at heights over 1000 m. To understand how bats use vertical space, we tracked one to five foraging flights of eight common noctules (Nyctalus noctula). Bats were tracked for their full foraging session (87.27 ± 24 min) using high-resolution atmospheric pressure radio transmitters that allowed us to calculate height and wingbeat frequency. Bats used diverse flight strategies, but generally flew lower than 40 m, with scouting flights to 100 m and a maximum of 300 m. We found no influence of weather on height, and high-altitude ascents were not preceded by an increase in foraging effort. Wingbeat frequency was independent from climbing or descending flight, and bats skipped wingbeats or glided in 10% of all observations. Wingbeat frequency was positively related to capture mass, and wingbeat frequency was positively related to time of night, indicating an effect of load increase over a foraging bout. Overall, individuals used a wide range of airspace including altitudes that put them at increased risk from human-made structures. Further work is needed to test the context of these flight decisions, particularly as individuals migrate throughout Europe.

Determinants of spring migration departure decision in a bat

Migratory decisions in birds are closely tied to environmental cues and fat stores, but it remains unknown if the same variables trigger bat migration. To learn more about the rare phenomenon of bat migration, we studied departure decisions of female common noctules (Nyctalus noctula) in southern Germany. We did not find the fattening period that modulates departure decisions in birds. Female noctules departed after a regular evening foraging session, uniformly heading northeast. As the day of year increased, migratory decisions were based on the interactions among wind speed, wind direction and air pressure. As the migration season progressed, bats were likely to migrate on nights with higher air pressure and faster tail winds in the direction of travel, and also show high probability of migration on low-pressure nights with slow head winds. Common noctules thus monitor complex environmental conditions to find the optimal migration night.

Heart rate reveals torpor at high body temperatures in lowland tropical free-tailed bats

Reduction in metabolic rate and body temperature is a common strategy for small endotherms to save energy. The daily reduction in metabolic rate and heterothermy, or torpor, is particularly pronounced in regions with a large variation in daily ambient temperature. This applies most strongly in temperate bat species (order Chiroptera), but it is less clear how tropical bats save energy if ambient temperatures remain high. However, many subtropical and tropical species use some daily heterothermy on cool days. We recorded the heart rate and the body temperature of free-ranging Pallas' mastiff bats (Molossus molossus) in Gamboa, Panamá, and showed that these individuals have low field metabolic rates across a wide range of body temperatures that conform to high ambient temperature. Importantly, low metabolic rates in controlled respirometry trials were best predicted by heart rate, and not body temperature. Molossus molossus enter torpor-like states characterized by low metabolic rate and heart rates at body temperatures of 32°C, and thermoconform across a range of temperatures. Flexible metabolic strategies may be far more common in tropical endotherms than currently known.

Cyclic bouts of extreme bradycardia counteract the high metabolism of frugivorous bats

Active flight requires the ability to efficiently fuel bursts of costly locomotion while maximizing energy conservation during non-flying times. We took a multi-faceted approach to estimate how fruit-eating bats (Uroderma bilobatum) manage a high-energy lifestyle fueled primarily by fig juice. Miniaturized heart rate telemetry shows that they use a novel, cyclic, bradycardic state that reduces daily energetic expenditure by 10% and counteracts heart rates as high as 900 bpm during flight. Uroderma bilobatum support flight with some of the fastest metabolic incorporation rates and dynamic circulating cortisol in vertebrates. These bats will exchange fat reserves within 24 hr, meaning that they must survive on the food of the day and are at daily risk of starvation. Energetic flexibly in U. bilobatum highlights the fundamental role of ecological pressures on integrative energetic networks and the still poorly understood energetic strategies of animals in the tropics.

To survive, all animals have to balance how much energy they take in and how much they use. They must find enough food to fuel the chemical processes that keep them alive – known as their metabolism – and store leftover fuel to use when food is not available. Bats, for example, have a fast metabolism and powerful flight muscles, which require a lot of energy. Some bat species, such as the tent-making bats, survive on fruit juice, and their food sources are often far apart and difficult to find. These bats are likely to starve if they go without food for more than 24 hours, and therefore need to conserve energy while they are resting.

To deal with potential food shortages, bats and other animals can enter a low-energy resting state called torpor. In this state, animals lower their body temperature and slow down their heart rate and metabolism so that they need less energy to stay alive. However, many animals that live in tropical regions, including tent-making bats, cannot enter a state of torpor, as it is too hot to sufficiently lower their body temperature. Until now, scientists did not fully understand how these bats control how much energy they use.

Now, O’Mara et al. studied tent-making bats in the wild by attaching small heart rate transmitters to four wild bats, and measured their heartbeats over several days. Since each heartbeat delivers oxygen and fuel to the rest of the body, measuring the bats’ heart rate indicates how much energy they are using. The experiments revealed for the first time that tent-making bats periodically lower their heart rates while resting (to around 200 beats per minute). This reduces the amount of energy they use each day by up to 10%, and helps counteract heart rates that can reach 900 beats per minute when the bats are flying.

Overall, these findings show that animals have evolved in various ways to control their use of energy. Future research should use similar technology to continue uncovering how wild animals have adapted to survive in different conditions. This knowledge will help us to understand how life has become so diverse in the tropics and the strategies that animals may use as climates change.

Stable carbon isotopes in breath reveal fast metabolic incorporation rates and seasonally variable but rapid fat turnover in the common shrew (Sorex araneus)

Small non-migratory mammals with Northern distribution ranges apply a variety of behavioural and physiological wintering strategies. A rare energy-saving strategy is Dehnel's phenomenon, involving a reduction and later regrowth of the body size, several organs and parts of the skeleton in red-toothed shrews (Soricidae). The size extremes coincide with major life stages. However, the physiological consequences for the shrew's metabolism remain poorly understood. In keeping with the energetic limitations that may induce the size changes, we hypothesised that metabolic incorporation rates should remain the same across the shrews' lifetimes. In contrast, fat turnover rates should be faster in smaller subadults than in large juveniles and regrown adults, as the metabolic activity of fat tissue increases in winter individuals (subadults). Measuring the changes in the ratio of exhaled stable carbon isotopes, we found that the baseline diet of shrews changed across the season. A diet switch experiment showed that incorporation rates were consistently rapid (t₅₀=38.2±21.1-69.3±53.5 min) and did not change between seasons. As predicted, fat turnover rates were faster in size-reduced subadults (t₅₀=2.1±1.3 h) compared with larger juveniles (t₅₀=5.5±1.7 h) and regrown adults (t₅₀=5.0±4.4 h). In all three age/size classes, all body fat was turned over after 9-24 h. These results show that high levels of nutrient uptake are independent of body size, whereas fat turnover rates are negatively correlated with body size. Thus, the shrews might be under higher pressure to save energy in winter and this may have supported the evolution of Dehnel's phenomenon.

No fever and leucocytosis in response to a lipopolysaccharide challenge in an insectivorous bat

Bat immune systems may allow them to respond to zoonotic agents more efficiently than other mammals. As the first line of defence, the taxonomically conserved acute phase immune reaction of leucocytosis and fever is crucial for coping with infections, but it is unknown if this response is a key constituent to bat immunological success. We investigated the acute phase reaction to a standard lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge in Pallas's mastiff bats (Molossus molossus). Challenged bats lost mass, but in contrast to other mammals showed no leucocytosis or fever. There also was no influence on body temperature reduction during torpor. When compared to recent genome-wide assays for constituent immune genes, this lack of a conserved fever response to LPS contributes to a clearer understanding of the innate immune system in bat species and of the coevolution of bats with a wide diversity of pathogens.

Group size, survival and surprisingly short lifespan in socially foraging bats

Background

The relationships between group size, survival, and longevity vary greatly among social species. Depending on demographic and ecological circumstances, there are both positive and negative effects of group size variation on individual survival and longevity. For socially foraging species in particular there may be an optimal group size that predicts maximum individual survival that is directly related to the potential for information transfer, social coordination, and costs of conspecific interference. Our aim was to investigate this central aspect of evolutionary ecology by focusing on a socially foraging bat, Molossus molossus. This species optimizes foraging success by eavesdropping on the echolocation calls of group members to locate ephemeral food patches. We expected to find the highest survival and longest lifespans in small groups as a consequence of a trade-off between benefits of information transfer on ephemeral resources and costs of conspecific interference.

Results

In a mark-recapture study of 14 mixed-sex M. molossus social groups in Gamboa, Panama, spanning several years we found the expected relatively small and intermediate, but stable groups, with a mean size of 9.6 ± 6.7 adults and juveniles. We estimated survival proxies using Cox proportional hazard models and multistate-mark recapture models generated with recapture data as well as automated monitoring of roost entrances in a subset of the groups. Median survival of females was very short with 1.8 years and a maximum estimated longevity of 5.6 years. Contrary to our expectations, we found no relationship between variation in group size and survival, a result similar to few other studies.

Conclusions

Strong selection towards small group size may result from psychoacoustic and cognitive constraints related to acoustic interference in social foraging and the complexity of coordinated flight. The short lifespans were unexpected and may result from life at the energetic edge due to a highly specialized diet. The absence of a relationship between group size and survival may reflect a similar but optimized survival within the selected range of group sizes. We expect the pattern of small group sizes will be consistent in future research on species dependent on social information transfer about ephemeral resources.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12898-016-0056-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Ring-tailed lemurs: a species re-imagined

For over 50 years, ring-tailed lemurs have been studied continuously in the wild. As one of the most long-studied primate species, the length and breadth of their study is comparable to research on Japanese macaques, baboons and chimpanzees. They are also one of the most broadly observed of all primates, with comprehensive research conducted on their behaviour, biology, ecology, genetics, palaeobiology and life history. However, over the last decade, a new generation of lemur scholars, working in conjunction with researchers who have spent decades studying this species, have greatly enhanced our knowledge of ring-tailed lemurs. In addition, research on this species has expanded beyond traditional gallery forest habitats to now include high altitude, spiny thicket, rocky outcrop and anthropogenically disturbed coastal forest populations. The focus of this special volume is to 're-imagine' the 'flagship species of Madagascar', bringing together three generations of lemur scholars.

Tracking post-hibernation behavior and early migration does not reveal the expected sex-differences in a "female-migrating" bat

Long-distance migration is a rare phenomenon in European bats. Genetic analyses and banding studies show that females can cover distances of up to 1,600 km, whereas males are sedentary or migrate only short distances. The onset of this sex-biased migration is supposed to occur shortly after rousing from hibernation and when the females are already pregnant. We therefore predicted that the sexes are exposed to different energetic pressures in early spring, and this should be reflected in their behavior and physiology. We investigated this in one of the three Central European long-distance migrants, the common noctule (Nyctalus noctula) in Southern Germany recording the first individual partial migration tracks of this species. In contrast to our predictions, we found no difference between male and female home range size, activity, habitat use or diet. Males and females emerged from hibernation in similar body condition and mass increase rate was the same in males and females. We followed the first migration steps, up to 475 km, of radio-tagged individuals from an airplane. All females, as well as some of the males, migrated away from the wintering area in the same northeasterly direction. Sex differences in long-distance migratory behavior were confirmed through stable isotope analysis of hair, which showed greater variation in females than in males. We hypothesize that both sexes faced similarly good conditions after hibernation and fattened at maximum rates, thus showing no differences in their local behavior. Interesting results that warrant further investigation are the better initial condition of the females and the highly consistent direction of the first migratory step in this population as summering habitats of the common noctule occur at a broad range in Northern Europe. Only research focused on individual strategies will allow us to fully understand the migratory behavior of European bats.

Sources of tooth wear variation early in life among known-aged wild ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) at the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar

Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) at the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve (BMSR), Madagascar display a high frequency of individuals with notable and sometimes extreme tooth wear. Adult lemurs display a range of tooth wear even among individuals of the same age, but we do not know at what age this variation first appears. This study's goal was to determine whether wear variation occurs in younger wild lemurs. Based on the decade-long study of ring-tailed lemur feeding and dental ecology at BMSR, we hypothesized that younger, natal lemurs (under 5 years of age), would display variation in their degree of tooth wear that would correspond to microhabitat differences, given differences in food availability in different troops' home ranges. We also hypothesized that wear would differ between sexes at this young age, given differences in feeding between males and females in this population. Hypotheses were tested using dental topographic analyses using dental impressions collected from known-aged lemurs across 10 years at BMSR. Results illustrate significant differences in wear-related tooth topography (i.e., relief and slope, presented here as "occlusal lift") for microhabitat, sex and troop affiliation among lemurs under 5 years of age in this population. Although, all lemurs in this population consume mechanically challenging tamarind fruit, those in more disturbed habitats eat additional introduced foods, some of which are also mechanically challenging. Thus, dietary variation is the likely cause of variation in tooth wear. The wear variation we show at a young age suggests caution when assigning age based on tooth wear in living and fossil primates. These wear-related tooth shape changes early in life, which reflects sex, habitat variation and levels of anthropogenic disturbance, may potentially impact reproductive fitness later in life.