Dietary patterns of phyllostomid bats in interior Atlantic Forest of eastern Paraguay

Abstract

We examined patterns of dietary overlap of phyllostomid bats in interior Atlantic Forest of Paraguay. In addition, we examined microgeographic, seasonal, and species-specific, differences in dietary patterns. We obtained 4,519 dietary records for bats from two sites in eastern Paraguay representing 26 different kinds of resources. The three most abundant resources made up 85% of all dietary records. No significant difference in diets of phyllostomid bats existed between sites. Overlap was high and significantly greater than random. Overlap at both sites was higher in winter than in summer. Consumption of dietary items was different between seasons and reflected changes in consumption primarily of the three most consumed items. Resource breadth was narrower in winter than summer. Sites, season, and species together accounted for 71% of the variation in dietary items. Unique effects, after controlling for variation shared with other factors, of species and season were significant, whereas that of site was not. While much dietary variation in interior Atlantic Forest falls along phylogenetic lines, such patterns are weak and resource utilization appears to be substantively influenced by generalist ecology of bats and seasonal nature of the environment in this system.