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Flight is the key to postprandial blood glucose balance in the fruit batsEonycteris spelaeaandCynopterus sphinx
Flight is the key to postprandial blood glucose balance in the fruit batsEonycteris spelaeaandCynopterus sphinx
- Source :
- Ecology and Evolution
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Excessive sugar consumption could lead to high blood glucose levels that are harmful to mammalian health and life. Despite consuming large amounts of sugar‐rich food, fruit bats have a longer lifespan, raising the question of how these bats overcome potential hyperglycemia. We investigated the change of blood glucose level in nectar‐feeding bats (Eonycteris spelaea) and fruit‐eating bats (Cynopterus sphinx) via adjusting their sugar intake and time of flight. We found that the maximum blood glucose level of C. sphinx was higher than 24 mmol/L that is considered to be pathological in other mammals. After C. sphinx bats spent approximately 75% of their time to fly, their blood glucose levels dropped markedly, and the blood glucose of E. spelaea fell to the fast levels after they spent 70% time of fly. Thus, the level of blood glucose elevated with the quantity of sugar intake but declined with the time of flight. Our results indicate that high‐intensive flight is a key regulator for blood glucose homeostasis during foraging. High‐intensive flight may confer benefits to the fruit bats in foraging success and behavioral interactions and increases the efficiency of pollen and seed disposal mediated by bats.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Cynopterus sphinx
glucose metabolism
Foraging
Sugar consumption
Carbohydrate metabolism
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
03 medical and health sciences
Frugivore
Animal science
Chiroptera
Botany
Glucose homeostasis
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Original Research
Nature and Landscape Conservation
Ecology
biology.organism_classification
flight
Eonycteris spelaea
nectarivorous
030104 developmental biology
Postprandial
frugivorous
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20457758
- Volume :
- 7
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Ecology and Evolution
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....daf8850e3f986b12c9621778b0ac390d
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3416