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  • Title: Flight is the key to postprandial blood glucose balance in the fruit bats Eonycteris spelaea and Cynopterus sphinx.
    Author: Peng X, He X, Liu Q, Sun Y, Liu H, Zhang Q, Liang J, Peng Z, Liu Z, Zhang L.
    Journal: Ecol Evol; 2017 Nov; 7(21):8804-8811. PubMed ID: 29152179.
    Abstract:
    Excessive sugar consumption could lead to high blood glucose levels that are harmful to mammalian health and life. Despite consuming large amounts of sugar-rich food, fruit bats have a longer lifespan, raising the question of how these bats overcome potential hyperglycemia. We investigated the change of blood glucose level in nectar-feeding bats (Eonycteris spelaea) and fruit-eating bats (Cynopterus sphinx) via adjusting their sugar intake and time of flight. We found that the maximum blood glucose level of C. sphinx was higher than 24 mmol/L that is considered to be pathological in other mammals. After C. sphinx bats spent approximately 75% of their time to fly, their blood glucose levels dropped markedly, and the blood glucose of E. spelaea fell to the fast levels after they spent 70% time of fly. Thus, the level of blood glucose elevated with the quantity of sugar intake but declined with the time of flight. Our results indicate that high-intensive flight is a key regulator for blood glucose homeostasis during foraging. High-intensive flight may confer benefits to the fruit bats in foraging success and behavioral interactions and increases the efficiency of pollen and seed disposal mediated by bats.
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