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First published online January 18, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 310-316 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.012252

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Dietary sugar as a direct fuel for flight in the nectarivorous bat Glossophaga soricina

Kenneth C. Welch, Jr^1,*, L. Gerardo Herrera M.² and Raul K. Suarez¹

¹ Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9610, USA
² Estación de Biología de Chamela, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 21, 48980, San Patricio, Jalisco, México

^* Author for correspondence at present address: Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA (e-mail: kenwelch{at}ucr.edu)

Accepted 6 November 2007

It is thought that the capacity of mammals to directly supply the energetic needs of exercising muscles using recently ingested fuels is limited. Humans, for example, can only fuel about 30%, at most, of exercise metabolism with dietary sugar. Using indirect calorimetry, i.e. measurement of rates of O₂ consumption and CO₂ production, in combination with carbon stable isotope techniques, we found that nectarivorous bats Glossophaga soricina use recently ingested sugars to provide 78% of the fuel required for oxidative metabolism during their energetically expensive hovering flight. Among vertebrate animals, only hummingbirds exceed the capacity of these nectarivorous bats to fuel exercise with dietary sucrose. Similar experiments performed on Anna's (Calypte anna) and rufous (Selasphorus rufus) hummingbirds show that they use recently ingested sugars to support 95% of hovering metabolism. These results support the suggestion that convergent evolution of physiological and biochemical traits has occurred among hovering nectarivorous animals, rendering them capable of a process analogous to aerial refueling in aircraft.

Key words: bat, carbohydrate, energetics, fatty acid, stable isotope

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