We studied the diet and the overlap of diet and spatial niches of three common insectivorous bats: Hipposideros fuliginosus, Rhinolophus landeri and Chaerephon pumilus in the West region of Cameroon from December 2016 to November 2018. Bats were captured using standard mist netting and fecal analyses carried out. Five fecal pellets were randomly chosen from each bat, moisten with water and separated into fine pieces and observed under a binocular microscope. The result reveals that these species fed mainly on coleopterans, lepidopterans and hemipterans. Diet of these bats exhibited a high level of overlap, with the highest value between C. pumilus and R. landeri, with an overlap percentage of 76.6%, followed by H. fuliginosus and R. landeri, with an overlap percentage of 69.2%. The lowest overlap, with a percentage of 28.2% is between C. pumilus and H. fuliginosus. Also, communities of the R. landeri are spatially distant from those of C. pumilus and H. fuliginosus with the lowest spatial overlap between the pair C. pumilus and R. landeri followed by R. landeri and H. fuliginosus. Our results show that these three species consume the similar types of insect prey, but they take different proportions. Moreover, resource partitioning by these insectivorous bats is likely to occur in accordance with the abundance and seasonal availability of insect prey. Furthermore, our results provide baseline data for several insectivorous bats in Cameroon whose dietary and spatial co-existence has never been studied.
| Published in | American Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering (Volume 11, Issue 5) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11 |
| Page(s) | 55-65 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Science Publishing Group |
West Region, Cameroon, Bat, Niche, Co-existence, Overlap
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APA Style
Manfothang Dongmo Ervis, Bakwo Fils Eric-Moise, Manga Mongombe Aaron, Tchuenguem Fohouo Fernand-Nestor. (2023). Food Habit, Spatial, and Dietary Niche Overlap of Three Sympatric Insectivorous Bats (Chiroptera) in the West Region of Cameroon. American Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 11(5), 55-65. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11
ACS Style
Manfothang Dongmo Ervis; Bakwo Fils Eric-Moise; Manga Mongombe Aaron; Tchuenguem Fohouo Fernand-Nestor. Food Habit, Spatial, and Dietary Niche Overlap of Three Sympatric Insectivorous Bats (Chiroptera) in the West Region of Cameroon. Am. J. BioSci. Bioeng. 2023, 11(5), 55-65. doi: 10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11
AMA Style
Manfothang Dongmo Ervis, Bakwo Fils Eric-Moise, Manga Mongombe Aaron, Tchuenguem Fohouo Fernand-Nestor. Food Habit, Spatial, and Dietary Niche Overlap of Three Sympatric Insectivorous Bats (Chiroptera) in the West Region of Cameroon. Am J BioSci Bioeng. 2023;11(5):55-65. doi: 10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11
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author = {Manfothang Dongmo Ervis and Bakwo Fils Eric-Moise and Manga Mongombe Aaron and Tchuenguem Fohouo Fernand-Nestor},
title = {Food Habit, Spatial, and Dietary Niche Overlap of Three Sympatric Insectivorous Bats (Chiroptera) in the West Region of Cameroon},
journal = {American Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering},
volume = {11},
number = {5},
pages = {55-65},
doi = {10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.bio.20231105.11},
abstract = {We studied the diet and the overlap of diet and spatial niches of three common insectivorous bats: Hipposideros fuliginosus, Rhinolophus landeri and Chaerephon pumilus in the West region of Cameroon from December 2016 to November 2018. Bats were captured using standard mist netting and fecal analyses carried out. Five fecal pellets were randomly chosen from each bat, moisten with water and separated into fine pieces and observed under a binocular microscope. The result reveals that these species fed mainly on coleopterans, lepidopterans and hemipterans. Diet of these bats exhibited a high level of overlap, with the highest value between C. pumilus and R. landeri, with an overlap percentage of 76.6%, followed by H. fuliginosus and R. landeri, with an overlap percentage of 69.2%. The lowest overlap, with a percentage of 28.2% is between C. pumilus and H. fuliginosus. Also, communities of the R. landeri are spatially distant from those of C. pumilus and H. fuliginosus with the lowest spatial overlap between the pair C. pumilus and R. landeri followed by R. landeri and H. fuliginosus. Our results show that these three species consume the similar types of insect prey, but they take different proportions. Moreover, resource partitioning by these insectivorous bats is likely to occur in accordance with the abundance and seasonal availability of insect prey. Furthermore, our results provide baseline data for several insectivorous bats in Cameroon whose dietary and spatial co-existence has never been studied.},
year = {2023}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Food Habit, Spatial, and Dietary Niche Overlap of Three Sympatric Insectivorous Bats (Chiroptera) in the West Region of Cameroon AU - Manfothang Dongmo Ervis AU - Bakwo Fils Eric-Moise AU - Manga Mongombe Aaron AU - Tchuenguem Fohouo Fernand-Nestor Y1 - 2023/09/27 PY - 2023 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11 DO - 10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11 T2 - American Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering JF - American Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering JO - American Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering SP - 55 EP - 65 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-5893 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bio.20231105.11 AB - We studied the diet and the overlap of diet and spatial niches of three common insectivorous bats: Hipposideros fuliginosus, Rhinolophus landeri and Chaerephon pumilus in the West region of Cameroon from December 2016 to November 2018. Bats were captured using standard mist netting and fecal analyses carried out. Five fecal pellets were randomly chosen from each bat, moisten with water and separated into fine pieces and observed under a binocular microscope. The result reveals that these species fed mainly on coleopterans, lepidopterans and hemipterans. Diet of these bats exhibited a high level of overlap, with the highest value between C. pumilus and R. landeri, with an overlap percentage of 76.6%, followed by H. fuliginosus and R. landeri, with an overlap percentage of 69.2%. The lowest overlap, with a percentage of 28.2% is between C. pumilus and H. fuliginosus. Also, communities of the R. landeri are spatially distant from those of C. pumilus and H. fuliginosus with the lowest spatial overlap between the pair C. pumilus and R. landeri followed by R. landeri and H. fuliginosus. Our results show that these three species consume the similar types of insect prey, but they take different proportions. Moreover, resource partitioning by these insectivorous bats is likely to occur in accordance with the abundance and seasonal availability of insect prey. Furthermore, our results provide baseline data for several insectivorous bats in Cameroon whose dietary and spatial co-existence has never been studied. VL - 11 IS - 5 ER -
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