Data from: Consistent long-distance foraging flights across years and seasons at colony level in a neotropical bat [2023]

Citation
Bayer TD, Barría LM, Gómez LF, Lee JP, Aguilar G, O'Mara MT. 2024. Data from: Consistent long-distance foraging flights across years and seasons at colony level in a neotropical bat [2023]. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.322
Abstract
All foraging animals face a trade-off: how much time should they invest in exploitation of known resources versus exploration to discover new resources? For group-living central place foragers, this balance is challenging. Due to the nature of their movement patterns, exploration and exploitation are often mutually exclusive, while the availability of social information may discourage individuals from exploring. To examine these trade-offs, we GPS-tracked groups of greater spear-nosed bats (Phyllostomus hastatus) from three colonies on Isla Colón, Panamá. During the dry season, when these omnivores forage on the nectar of unpredictable balsa flowers, bats consistently travelled long distances to remote, colony- specific foraging areas, bypassing flowering trees closer to their roosts. They continued using these areas in the wet season, when feeding on a diverse, presumably ubiquitous diet, but also visited other, similarly distant foraging areas. Foraging areas were shared within but not always between colonies. Our longitudinal dataset suggests that bats from each colony invest in long-distance commutes to socially learned shared foraging areas, bypassing other available food patches. Rather than exploring nearby resources, these bats exploit colony-specific foraging locations that appear to be culturally transmitted. These results give insight into how social animals might diverge from optimal foraging.
Keywords
Phyllostomus hastatus, animal movement, animal tracking, bats, GPS logger, greater spear-nosed bat
Taxa
Taxon
Phyllostomus hastatus
greater spear-nosed bat
Sensors
Sensor
GPS
Related Workflows
DOIs of related Publications
BibTex
@misc{001/1_322,
  title = {Data from: Consistent long-distance foraging flights across years and seasons at colony level in a neotropical bat [2023]},
  author = {Bayer, TD and Barría, LM and Gómez, LF and Lee, JP and Aguilar, G and O'Mara, MT},
  year = {2024},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.322},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.322},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.322
T1  - Data from: Consistent long-distance foraging flights across years and seasons at colony level in a neotropical bat [2023]
AU  - Bayer, Travis D.
AU  - Barría, Leslye M.
AU  - Gómez, Luisa F.
AU  - Lee, James P.
AU  - Aguilar, Graciela
AU  - O'Mara, M. Teague
Y1  - 2024/11/27
KW  - Phyllostomus hastatus
KW  - animal movement
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - bats
KW  - GPS logger
KW  - greater spear-nosed bat
KW  - Phyllostomus hastatus
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.322
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.322
ER  -
Collections