Fish and amphibians as bat predators

71 Bats (Chiroptera) are among most taxonomically and ecologically diverse mammalian groups comprising more than 1200 recent species (Kunz & Fenton 2003; Gunnell & Simmons 2012). Although, they are the second largest mammalian order, several aspects of their life still remain only poorly understood. This particularly holds for predator–prey interactions; we had only limited knowledge on the spectrum of their natural predators over a long time (Allen 1940; Lima & Dill 1990). Nowadays, the knowledge on natural predators of bats is increasing due to several comprehensive reviews. However, these reviews include only few animal groups such as spiders (Nyffeler & Knörnschild 2013), some owls (e.g. Speakman 1991; Sparks, Roberts & Jones 2000; Roulin & Christe 2013) and diurnal birds (Mikula et al. forthcoming). Traditionally, some life-history traits (e.g. long lifespan and small litter size) and agile flight of bats indicate successful predator avoidance by bats (Kunz & Fenton 2003). In fact, however, it appears that bats have a variety of natural enemies (Sparks et al. 2000; Nyffeler & Knörnschild 2013; Mikula et al. forthcoming). Probably the most important bat predators are birds and especially owls, which are preying upon bats during their coincidental activity time (Speakman 1991; Lesiński et al. 2009; Roulin & Christe 2013). On the other hand, diurnal birds can represent substantial danger for daytime flying bats (Mikula et al. forthcoming), snakes and arthropods seem to be successful bat predator in the vicinity of their roosting aggregations (e.g. caves) (Molinari et al. 2005; Esbérard & Vrcibradic 2007; Nyffeler & Knörnschild 2013). Mammalian predators are, moreover, able to detect bat-roosting places based on odour clues (Threlfall et al. 2013). On patterns of bat predation by fishes and amphibians, we, however, have only limited information. Representatives of anamniotes, fishes and amphibians, belong to the most diverse groups of vertebrates representing with approximately 33,000 and 7500 recent forms, Fish and amphibians as bat predators EJE 2015, 1(1): 71-80, doi: 10.1515/eje-2015-0010