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1. Optimal foraging in seasonal environments: implications for residency of Australian flying foxes in food-subsidized urban landscapes

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0097  

   Páez, David J. ; Restif, Olivier ; Eby, Peggy ; Plowright, Raina K. ( March 2018 , Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
2. Morphological and quantitative analysis of leukocytes in free-living Australian black flying foxes (Pteropus alecto)

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268549  

   Hansen, Dale ; Hunt, Brooklin E. ; Falvo, Caylee A. ; Ruiz-Aravena, Manuel ; Kessler, Maureen K. ; Hall, Jane ; Thompson, Paul ; Rose, Karrie ; Jones, Devin N. ; Lunn, Tamika J. ; et al ( May 2022 , PLOS ONE)

   Becker, Daniel (Ed.)

   The black flying fox ( Pteropus alecto ) is a natural reservoir for Hendra virus, a paramyxovirus that causes fatal infections in humans and horses in Australia. Increased excretion of Hendra virus by flying foxes has been hypothesized to be associated with physiological or energetic stress in the reservoir hosts. The objective of this study was to explore the leukocyte profiles of wild-caught P . alecto , with a focus on describing the morphology of each cell type to facilitate identification for clinical purposes and future virus spillover research. To this end, we have created an atlas of images displaying the commonly observed morphological variations across each cell type. We provide quantitative and morphological information regarding the leukocyte profiles in bats captured at two roost sites located in Redcliffe and Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, over the course of two years. We examined the morphology of leukocytes, platelets, and erythrocytes of P . alecto using cytochemical staining and characterization of blood films through light microscopy. Leukocyte profiles were broadly consistent with previous studies of P . alecto and other Pteropus species. A small proportion of individual samples presented evidence of hemoparasitic infection or leukocyte morphological traits that are relevant for future research on bat health, including unique large granular lymphocytes. Considering hematology is done by visual inspection of blood smears, examples of the varied cell morphologies are included as a visual guide. To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first qualitative assessment of P . alecto leukocytes, as well as the first set of published hematology reference images for this species. 

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3. Conventional wisdom on roosting behavior of Australian flying‐foxes—A critical review, and evaluation using new data

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8079  

   Lunn, Tamika J. ; Eby, Peggy ; Brooks, Remy ; McCallum, Hamish ; Plowright, Raina K. ; Kessler, Maureen K. ; Peel, Alison J. ( October 2021 , Ecology and Evolution)
4. Quantifying the impacts of Australian bushfires on native forests and gray-headed flying foxes

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01566  

   Baranowski, K. ; Faust, C.L. ; Eby, P. ; Bharti, N. ( June 2021 , Global Ecology and Conservation)

   null (Ed.)
5. Dispersal out of Wallacea spurs diversification of Pteropus flying foxes, the world’s largest bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera)

   https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13750  

   Tsang, Susan M. ; Wiantoro, Sigit ; Veluz, Maria Josefa ; Sugita, Norimasa ; Nguyen, Y‐Lan ; Simmons, Nancy B. ; Lohman, David J. ( November 2019 , Journal of Biogeography)

   Islands provide opportunities for isolation and speciation. Many landmasses in the Indo‐Australian Archipelago (IAA) are oceanic islands, and founder‐event speciation is expected to be the predominant form of speciation of volant taxa on these islands. We studied the biogeographic history of flying foxes, a group with many endemic species and a predilection for islands, to test this hypothesis and infer the biogeographic origin of the group.

   Australasia, Indo‐Australian Archipelago, Madagascar, Pacific Islands.

   Pteropus(Pteropodidae).

   To infer the biogeographic history ofPteropus, we sequenced up to 6,169 bp of genetic data from 10 markers and reconstructed a multilocus species tree of 34 currently recognizedPteropusspecies and subspecies with threeAcerodonoutgroups usingBEASTand subsequently estimated ancestral areas using models implemented inBioGeoBEARS.

   Species‐level resolution was occasionally low because of slow rates of molecular evolution and/or recent divergences. Older divergences, however, were more strongly supported and allow the evolutionary history of the group to be inferred. The genus diverged in Wallacea from its common ancestor withAcerodon; founder‐event speciation out of Wallacea was a common inference.Pteropusspecies in Micronesia and the western Indian Ocean were also inferred to result from founder‐event speciation.

   Dispersal between regions of the IAA and the islands found therein fostered diversification ofPteropusthroughout the IAA and beyond. Dispersal inPteropusis far higher than in most other volant taxa studied to date, highlighting the importance of inter‐island movement in the biogeographic history of this large clade of large bats.

    

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