2009 Serrano-Davies et Sanz 2017) and in turn, the dynamics and viability of populations ( Taylor et Schultz 2008 Vickery et al. Both the quantity and quality of food resources are known to strongly impact the fitness of individuals ( Eeva, Lehikoinen, et Pohjalainen 1997 Sorensen et al. ferrumequinum populations viability.įood resources constitute a major environmental factor for animal populations ( Hutchinson 1957 Schoener 1974). ferrumequinum dietary plasticity and fitness, to better assess the impact of core prey decline on R. Further research should now explore the relationships between R. Energetic needs and constraints associated with the greater horseshoe bat life-cycle, as well as insect phenology and landscape features, strongly influenced the diversity and composition of both the core and whole diets. ferrumequinum diet is composed of two distinct features: the core diet consisting in a few preferred taxa shared by all the colonies (25% of the occurrences) and the secondary diet consisting in numerous rare prey that were highly different between colonies and sampling dates (75% of the occurrences). ferrumequinum feed on a highly more diverse spectrum of prey than expected from previous studies, therefore highlighting how eDNA metabarcoding can help improving diet knowledge of a flying elusive endangered species. We described its diet and investigated whether the landscape surrounding colonies and the different phases of the maternity cycle influenced the diversity and the composition of this diet. We applied an eDNA metabarcoding approach on 1986 fecal samples collected in six maternity colonies at three sampling dates. Here we focused on the greater horseshoe bat ( Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) in Western France, where this insectivorous species has been classified as ‘Vulnerable’ on the Regional Red List in 2016. The advent of molecular approaches now makes it possible to get a precise picture of diet and its plasticity, even for endangered and elusive species. However, this process still remains scarcely addressed in the literature, potentially because diet studies have long been constrained by methodological limits. Dietary plasticity is an important issue for conservation biology as it may be essential for species to cope with environmental changes.
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