Meeting Abstract
P3.168 Tuesday, Jan. 6 Assessing the Fight-or-Flight Response in the Brazilian Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) Using Heart Rate Telemetry ALLEN, L.C.*; BISSON, I.A.; KUNZ, T.H.; Boston University, Boston; Princeton University, Princeton; Boston University, Boston allenlou@bu.edu
As human populations expand, increased encroachment on natural landscapes and wildlife habitats is likely. We can expect that organisms able to adapt or acclimate to human-altered habitats will have a selective advantage over those unable to do so. One example of a human-altered landscape condition is the increasing availability and use of highway bridges by bats. Evidence from previous research, based on measured levels of the hormone cortisol, suggests that bridge-roosting Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasliensis) experience lower levels of stress and are in better overall health than their cave-roosting counterparts. This unexpected result suggests the ability of this species to rapidly acclimate to the potential stressors we observed at highway bridges. Heart rate telemetry allows direct and continuous monitoring of an acute response to a stressor and, thus is ideal for assessing acclimation to repeated stimuli. Heart rate telemetry has been used on several avian and mammalian species; however, its use on small, free-ranging bats has not been tested. In July 2008 we assessed the suitability of heart rate telemetry in the Brazilian free-tailed bat and evaluated the ability of these bats to rapidly acclimate to environmental stressors in a large highway bridge roost. To measure heart rate, a small (0.06 g) custom-made heart rate transmitter was affixed to each bat (~12g) and the signal was recorded on an MP3 recorder, while the bat was in the roost and at the onset of nightly emergence. We subjected lactating females (N=4) to several novel disturbance events (simulated predator) over the course of the experiment (12-36 hours), as well as noted other potentially disturbing stimuli (noise and vibration from passing freight trains) that the roosting bats may experience while roosting in bridge crevices.
