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4 December 2019 Relations between topography, feeding sites, and foraging behavior of the vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus
Felipe Rocha, Francisco Miroslav Ulloa-Stanojlovic, Vanessa Cristina Victor Rabaquim, Paulo Fadil, Júlio César Pompei, Paulo Eduardo Brandão, Ricardo Augusto Dias
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Abstract

The vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) plays a crucial role in the maintenance and transmission of the rabies virus to humans and livestock, impacting public health and economic production. Its importance lies not only in its capacity to transmit the virus but also in its ability to adapt to anthropic changes, as expressed in its wide geographic distribution in Latin America. Deforestation, livestock intensification, and other human activities have reduced the abundance of its wild prey but have also provided new and abundant shelter and foraging resources for the vampire bats. We used radiotelemetry to evaluate relations between topography, feeding site choice, and foraging behavior in southeastern Brazil, where three occupied D. rotundus roosts, out of 11 possible, were systematically monitored throughout a 1-year period once every 2 months. Sixty-two vampire bats were captured; biometric data were collected and 44 radiotransmitters were installed in adult individuals, producing telemetry data that were recorded in VHF receptors installed in the farms. Elevation of the roosts was related to the farms attacked by the vampire bats. Understanding the use of the environment and resources by vampire bats is critical to improving rabies control aiming at the reduction of disease impacts. From the perspective of the official veterinary service, telemetry would be ineffective as a rabies surveillance system due to the costs and limitations of the available technology. However, livestock rabies control measures would be greatly improved if ecological characteristics of the vampire bat were considered.

© 2019 American Society of Mammalogists, www.mammalogy.org
Felipe Rocha, Francisco Miroslav Ulloa-Stanojlovic, Vanessa Cristina Victor Rabaquim, Paulo Fadil, Júlio César Pompei, Paulo Eduardo Brandão, and Ricardo Augusto Dias "Relations between topography, feeding sites, and foraging behavior of the vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus," Journal of Mammalogy 101(1), 164-171, (4 December 2019). https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz177
Received: 23 May 2019; Accepted: 23 October 2019; Published: 4 December 2019
KEYWORDS
Desmodus rotundus
rabies
radiotelemetry
vampire bat
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