I love the Sonoran Desert - oh and Sonoran Desert rodent diet paper accepted for publication

Still more research news but not about bats (granted I am making preparations to go to the field soon)....

I am excited to report that my paper on Sonoran Desert rodent diets is accepted for publication and will be published by the journal Oecologia. 











This paper reports my findings using stable isotopes of Carbon to track the use of cacti and other plants such as grasses (C3 plants) by several different species of rodents.  Research was done at the amazingly beautiful Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument that boasts beautiful cacti and many migrant bird species.

It is exciting to know this work will be published and we even suggested a really cool photo for the cover showing woodrat (Neotoma) tunnels chewed into a saguaro cactus.  Fingers crossed!

You can see the location of the ecosystem classified as Sonoran below.

Desert bats

This may or may not come as a surprise but deserts are home to many species of bats. This is in part because of the ability of bats to fly long distances to access water, as well as the ease with which many species are able to extract water from their food (normally insects). Additionally, by being nocturnal (active at night while sleeping during the day) they limit their exposure to high temperatures i.e. the extreme daytime temperatures of desert days, by roosting in nice cool habitats like caves, abandoned mines and even rock piles.




So what are some of the desert bats in the US and Mexico?
To the left is one of the most unique species called the Pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus). These bats lovingly referred to as 'Werebats' by my co-workers in the field primarily eat large insects like scorpions, and centipedes in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. They are known by biologists by their amazing ability to get almost all the water they need from the food they eat by having highly specialized kidneys (the organ responsible for concentrating and regulating the water in our bodies via a process termed osmoregulation). This little guy I captured in Arizona in at the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge.



Another interesting bat is the California leaf-nosed bat (Macrotus californicus) shown here on the left. Perhaps on first glance this bat looks quite similar to the first but look closely at its nose. You can see what researchers refer to as a 'leaf' on its nose. These bats are much more rare than Pallid bats and normally are only found in Mexico and in the US near the border in Arizona and California. These bats are not good at thermoregulation (keeping their bodies warm by producing heat) and shiver while you hold them to generate heat.

Here is another bat called the California myotis (Myotis californicus). These bats are smaller than the above species but much more common. While this bat was captured in Arizona the species ranges from Canada to Guatamala.

Photos (Saguaro cactus: T. Orr, bats: C. Gilman)

**Please come back as I update the species listed.