Urban bats change the menu: dietary plasticity across human-modified landscapes of a tropical island

Abstract

In a rapidly urbanizing world, research on dietary habits of wildlife is essential to understand how plastic behaviors may guide evolutionary trajectories of endangered animal species. Bats are very sensitive to habitat destruction and land-use change, although some species have shown the capacity for adaptation to urban life. In this study, we tested to what extent urban insectivorous bats modify their feeding strategies in a recently human-modified tropical insular ecosystem. Using a DNA metabarcoding approach on fecal samples collected in seven roosts, we analyzed the dietary niche of free-tailed bats (Mormopterus francoismoutoui) endemic to Reunion Island. Our results revealed a wide dietary niche, including 174 arthropod species in 12 orders, among which lepidopterans were predominant. We identified several crop pests and disease vectors, highlighting the central role of this bat species for agroecology and epidemiology concerns. Our study also highlighted potential sex- and reproduction-related dietary strategies. Moreover, we found that agriculture areas, inferred from land cover surrounding bat roosts, were associated with higher relative abundance of Lepidoptera in the diet of bats. In contrast, bats roosting in urban areas increased their consumption of Blattodea. As Reunion free-tailed bats roost and thrive in human-modified landscapes, understanding the consequences of this dietary plasticity for bat health and fitness will be necessary for urban evolutionary research and conservation actions.