Ecobiology of haematophagous bats captured in Juruti municipality, Amazonas, Pará state, Brazil

Among the 1.200 species of bats belonging to the order Chiroptera, only Diaemus youngi, Diphylla ecaudata,and Desmodus rotundus are hematophagous, with D. rotundus being the most commonly found species and having the most widely studied and understood biology. This species feeds on the blood of domestic and wild birds and mammals, including humans. To understand the ecobiological characteristics of hematophagous bats in the municipality of Pará state, Brazil, bats were captured while feeding in 2013 and 2014 from solid ground and riparian regions. Over a general sampling period of 371 hours 75 individuals of D. rotundus—26 adult males and 49 adult females—and four adult male D. youngi were captured. Of these, 56 (75%) D. rotundus individuals were captured in solid ground regions and 19 (25%) were captured in riparian areas. D. rotundus often attacks cattle, horses, goats, pigs, and birds, rarely attacks dogs, and occasionally attacks people. The region’s D. rotundus colonies were observed to consist of small groups of individuals, and D. youngi has low participation in animal attacks in the Juruti municipality when compared with D. rotundus.