BERLIN, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- German-led ecologists have found nectar-feeding bats burn sugar faster than any other mammal on Earth -- three times faster than even top-class athletes.
Working with a captive breeding colony in Germany, Christian Voigt of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin and Professor John Speakman of the University of Aberdeen fed long-tongued bats (Glossophaga soricina) sugar containing non-radioactive carbon-13 and then measured the amount of carbon-13 in the bats’ exhaled breath.
"We found nectar-feeding bats made use of the sugar … for their metabolism within minutes after drinking it, and after less than half an hour they were fueling 100 percent of their metabolism from this source," the researchers said, noting the highest rates reported in humans are for athletes who can fuel up to 30 percent of their metabolism directly from power drinks.
Nectar-feeding bats live in South and Central America and are among the smallest of all living mammals, the researchers said. They feed at night and can ingest up to 150 percent of their body weight as nectar.
The study is reported online in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology.
