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Thesis
Home   /   Thesis   /   Integrating social interactions between chiropterans and variations in prey abundance to understand the distribution of chiropterans

Integrating social interactions between chiropterans and variations in prey abundance to understand the distribution of chiropterans

Earth and environmental sciences Environment and pollution

Abstract

The feeding behaviour of animals is of vital importance for the physical condition of individuals and is strongly influenced by the transfer of inter-individual information and competition. The study of these cause-effect relationships is particularly difficult for elusive taxa such as bats, whose extremely diverse hunting behaviour and strategies introduce a new degree of complexity. Bats increase the efficiency of their foraging by being attentive to the information-carrying behaviour of other individuals; they then adapt their own behaviour either to avoid competition or to increase it. Previous studies on this phenomenon of listening among bats have produced very different and partly contradictory results, probably because they generally focused on a single species, differed considerably in the rate of eavesdropping and generally did not take account of the activity of conspecifics. Taking these social interactions into account now seems essential both to advance our ‘global’ understanding of how chiropterans integrate social information into their decision-making, to explain species distribution patterns and to elucidate the mechanisms by which species coexist. This understanding will help to provide answers in the field of conservation in relation to the increase in anthropogenic pressures, such as lighting and the fragmentation of environments. The aim of this thesis is to identify the pairs of species that are most subject to competition, in order to understand the causes and perceive the consequences at the scale of the landscape and anthropogenic pressures (light pollution). A second objective will be to characterise the feeding areas and to study the spatio-temporal rearrangement of the food resource - measured directly - over time, and its consequences for chiropterans and their interactions. A third objective will be to apply these concepts to a practical case of anthropogenic modification of natural balances and to model the effects (causal model). The case will be that of the effect of light pollution, and will enable clear hypotheses to be put forward on the effect of light pollution (most of the arthropod prey of chiropterans being attracted and concentrated under light sources) and its consequences on the competitive equilibrium in chiropterans.

Laboratory

Département de Technologie Nucléaire
Service Mesures et modélisation des Transferts et des Accidents graves
Laboratoire de Modélisation des Transferts dans l’Environnement
Sorbonne Université
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