My Home Is Your Castle: Roost Making Is Sexually Selected in the BatLophostoma silvicolum

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_157A3FD17A58
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
My Home Is Your Castle: Roost Making Is Sexually Selected in the BatLophostoma silvicolum
Journal
Journal of Mammalogy
Author(s)
Dechmann D.K. N., Kerth G.
ISSN
1545-1542
ISSN-L
0022-2372
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2008
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
89
Number
6
Pages
1379-1390
Language
english
Abstract
Shelters are important for the Survival and reproduction of many animals and this is particularly true for bats. Depending on the future use and effect of shelters on the fitness of individuals, not all members of a group of animals may contribute equally to shelter making. Thus, knowledge about the identity of shelter-making individuals may teach us much about the social system and mating strategy of species. To exemplify this, we review what is known about the roost-making behavior and the social system of Lophostoma silvicolum, a neotropical bat that excavates roost cavities in active arboreal termite nests. Roosts in termite nests are highly beneficial for the bats because they offer improved microclimate and possibly are responsible for the lower parasite loads of L. silvicolum? in comparison to bat species using other, more common, roost types. Examination of observational field data in combination with genetic analyses shows that roost cavities excavated by single males subsequently serve as maternity roosts for females and that this improves reproductive success of the male who excavated the roost. This suggests that roosts in termite nests serve as an extended male phenotype and roost making is a sexually selected behavior. Roost-making behavior is tightly linked to the species' social organization (single-male-multifemale associations that stay together year-round) and mating system (resource-defense polygyny). The case study of L. silvicolum? shows that it is important to learn more about the implications of shelter making in bats and other animals from ongoing and future studies. However, differences in costs and benefits for each group member must be carefully evaluated before drawing conclusions about social systems and mating strategies in order to contribute to our current knowledge about the evolution of sociality in mammals.
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Create date
13/07/2018 10:05
Last modification date
20/08/2019 12:44
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