Co-roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity group
Abstract Long-lived, group living animals have the potential to form multiyear relationships. In some temperate bat species, maternity groups break apart and rejoin both daily, as females depart to forage and select day roosts to use, and annually, as bats leave for and return from hibernation. Here...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50191-4 |
| _version_ | 1797349909836333056 |
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| author | Julia Sunga Jessica Humber Hugh G. Broders |
| author_facet | Julia Sunga Jessica Humber Hugh G. Broders |
| author_sort | Julia Sunga |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Long-lived, group living animals have the potential to form multiyear relationships. In some temperate bat species, maternity groups break apart and rejoin both daily, as females depart to forage and select day roosts to use, and annually, as bats leave for and return from hibernation. Here, we investigated whether bats have persistent social preferences by testing whether relationships between dyads in a focal year could be predicted by previous years. We also hypothesized that experience influences social preferences and predicted that an individual’s age would influence its network position, while familiarity with bats of the same cohort would drive persistent social preferences. We quantified roost co-occurrence in little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) in Salmonier Nature Park, Newfoundland, Canada both within and among years. We found that roost co-occurrence patterns of previous years still had predictive value even when accounting for potential roost fidelity. However, we found no evidence that cohort familiarity or age explained any of the variation. Overall, we found long-term patterns of association in this temperate bat species that suggest levels of social complexity akin to other large mammal species. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T12:37:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-36b5e739a21f4aa0bfe7e3c460cdd43e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T12:37:16Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-36b5e739a21f4aa0bfe7e3c460cdd43e2024-01-21T12:22:41ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-01-011411910.1038/s41598-023-50191-4Co-roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity groupJulia Sunga0Jessica Humber1Hugh G. Broders2Department of Biology, University of WaterlooDepartment of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture, Government of Newfoundland and LabradorDepartment of Biology, Saint Mary’s UniversityAbstract Long-lived, group living animals have the potential to form multiyear relationships. In some temperate bat species, maternity groups break apart and rejoin both daily, as females depart to forage and select day roosts to use, and annually, as bats leave for and return from hibernation. Here, we investigated whether bats have persistent social preferences by testing whether relationships between dyads in a focal year could be predicted by previous years. We also hypothesized that experience influences social preferences and predicted that an individual’s age would influence its network position, while familiarity with bats of the same cohort would drive persistent social preferences. We quantified roost co-occurrence in little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) in Salmonier Nature Park, Newfoundland, Canada both within and among years. We found that roost co-occurrence patterns of previous years still had predictive value even when accounting for potential roost fidelity. However, we found no evidence that cohort familiarity or age explained any of the variation. Overall, we found long-term patterns of association in this temperate bat species that suggest levels of social complexity akin to other large mammal species.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50191-4 |
| spellingShingle | Julia Sunga Jessica Humber Hugh G. Broders Co-roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity group Scientific Reports |
| title | Co-roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity group |
| title_full | Co-roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity group |
| title_fullStr | Co-roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity group |
| title_full_unstemmed | Co-roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity group |
| title_short | Co-roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity group |
| title_sort | co roosting relationships are consistent across years in a bat maternity group |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50191-4 |
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