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. 2021 May 17;11(13):8400-8409.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.7667. eCollection 2021 Jul.

Who's for dinner? Bird prey diversity and choice in the great evening bat, Ia io

Lixin Gong  1   2 , Biye Shi  1   2 , Hui Wu  3 , Jiang Feng  1   2   3 , Tinglei Jiang  1   2
Affiliations

Who's for dinner? Bird prey diversity and choice in the great evening bat, Ia io

Lixin Gong et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

The mysterious predator-prey interaction between bats and nocturnally migrating birds is a very rare and incredible process in natural ecosystems. So far only three avivorous bat species, including two noctule bats (Nyctalus lasiopterus and Nyctalus aviator) and the great evening bat (Ia io), are known to regularly prey on songbirds during nocturnal avian migration. The information related to the diversity and the characteristics of the birds as prey and the hunting strategy in both species of noctule bats are already clear. However, the diversity of bird prey in the diet of I. io as confirmed by molecular identification remains unknown. Moreover, like hunting insects, it remains unclear whether the avivorous bats opportunistically prey on birds. Here, we used DNA metabarcoding to investigate the bird prey composition, diversity, and choice in diets of I. io. We found I. io consumed 22 species of seven families from Passeriformes with a body mass of 6-19 g, and preferentially selected small-sized passerine birds for optimizing the benefit/risk trade-off. Moreover, most of the species preyed upon were migratory birds, while four species were local resident birds, indicating that I. io may adopt both aerial-hawking and gleaning strategies on songbirds as do the other two noctules. Further, I. io body mass did not influence in prey choice and predation richness on birds, suggesting I. io is an opportunistic avivorous predator. This study provides novel insights into the avian dietary ecology of I. io and completes the analysis of predator/prey interaction between three avivorous bats and nocturnally migrating birds. Our results also indicate bat predation on birds which occurs as an act of ecological opportunity may subject bats to intense natural selection pressure, causing them access to the new diet-defined adaptive zones.

Keywords: Ia io; bats; bird migration; foraging strategy; molecular diet; predator–prey interaction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
(a) A great evening bat, Ia io (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) captured from Xingyi City, Guizhou Province, China. (b–g) Evidence of Ia io predation on birds: (b) tail membrane carrying bird feathers; (c) residual blood on tail membrane; (d) bird feather clamped in the forearm with a mark ring; (e) bloodstain on a hind foot; (f) fecal pellets containing numerous feathers; (g) undigested muscle and bone fragments. Photos taken by Lixin Gong
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Percentage of individuals with bird predation evidence (Line and scatter plots) and number of captured individuals (histograms) of Ia io in each season
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Bird prey composition and diversity in diet of Ia io. (a) Percent of occurrence (POO) representation of each bird family for bird species identified in I. io feces. (b) POO representation of each bird family for prey items identified in I. io feces. (c) Percent frequency of occurrence (%FOO) and relative read abundance (RRA) are expressed of passerine families in the diet of I. io. Bird images were licensed to download and cite from BIRDNET (https://www.birdnet.cn/; see the URL link and/or authors’ online moniker and personal homepage in Table S2)
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Migratory patterns of bird prey and Ia io prey choice. (a) Proportion of migratory patterns (type of resident or migrant) for bird species identified in feces of I. io. Migration patterns were divided into migratory birds (M, including S—summer visitor, W—winter visitor, and P—passing bird) and resident birds (R). (b) Frequency of bird body mass distribution for each category level of prey species and prey items identified in feces. (c) Number of different bird species detected in the feces of each 43 I. io individuals (predation richness). (d) Relationship between body mass of avivorous bats and body mass of birds
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