DOI: 10.5061/dryad.zgmsbccm8
title: Torpor use in the wild by one of the world's largest bats

description: Torpor is widespread among bats, presumably because most species are small
 and torpor greatly reduces their high mass-specific resting energy
 expenditure, especially in the cold. Torpor has not been recorded in any
 bat species larger than 50 g, yet in theory could be beneficial even in
 the world's largest bats (flying foxes; Pteropus spp.) that
 are exposed to adverse environmental conditions associated with energy
 bottlenecks. We used temperature telemetry to measure body temperature in
 wild-living adult male grey-headed flying foxes (P. poliocephalus; mean
 body mass: 799 g) during winter in southern Australia. We found that all
 individuals used torpor while day-roosting, with body temperatures as low
 as 27 °C. Torpor was recorded during cold, wet, and windy weather,
 strongly suggesting it is an adaptation to reduce energy expenditure
 during periods of increased thermoregulatory costs and depleted body
 energy stores. Our study has implications for our understanding of the
 distribution, behavioural ecology, and life history of flying foxes.
 Furthermore, our discovery increases the body mass of bats known to use
 torpor by more than tenfold and extends the documented use of this
 energy-saving strategy under wild conditions to all bat superfamilies,
 with important implications for the evolutionary maintenance of torpor
 among bats and other mammals.
description: # Torpor use in the wild by one of the world's largest bats
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zgmsbccm8](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zgmsbccm8) ## Description of the data We have submitted our raw data (ghff_winterdata.csv). Data on core body temperature were calculated from pulse intervals of temperature-sensitive radio transmitters implanted in each bat recorded by receiver stations located in the roosting camp. Data on body temperature were recorded when bats were within approximately 200 m of the receiver stations (i.e.,  at the roosting camp). Data on weather variables were sourced from a weather station (#023000) of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).  ### ghff\_winterdata Variables: * bat identity: a unique identifier for each bat * body temperature: (°C) core body temperature calculated from pulse intervals of temperature-sensitive radio transmitters implanted in each bat recorded by receiver stations located in the roosting camp. Data on body temperature were recorded when bats were within approximately 200 m of the receiver stations (i.e.,  at the roosting camp) * date time ACST: Date and time of each body temperature measurement (Time Zone: Australian Central Standard Time) * precipitation: Accumulated rainfall (mm) over 1-minute intervals * air temperature: Air temperature (°C) * relative humidity: relative humidity (%) * wind speed: wind speed (km/h) * sea level pressure: air pressure at sea level (hPa) * hour of day: time at the resolution of hour * sunrise ACST: time of sunrise calculated for the city of Adelaide South Australia (Time Zone: Australian Central Standard Time) * sunset ACST: time of sunset calculated for the city of Adelaide South Australia (Time Zone: Australian Central Standard Time) * min from sunrise: minutes from the time sunrise calculated for the city of Adelaide South Australia (Time Zone: Australian Central Standard Time) * min from sunset: minutes from the time sunset calculated for the city of Adelaide South Australia (Time Zone: Australian Central Standard Time) * day or night: factor designating if time was between sunrise and sunset * sex: factor designating whether an individual was male or female * mass: mass of each individual measured at the time of capture (g)