David Villalobos

University of Washington Seattle | UW · Department of Biology

Research on Pleistocene Amazonian refugia has predominantly targeted forest-dwelling taxa, although evidence suggests that endemic species have also evolved in peripheral Amazonian enclaves of open-dry habitats. In Rondônia, Brazil, Tropidurus lizards are restricted to savannah rel-icts that were once connected to the core Cerrado biome. These popu...

The energy needs of the human population inevitably affect natural environments, but the effects on wildlife of human modifications of habitat specifically for geothermal projects are scarcely known. Through acoustic monitoring, we quantified at Proyecto Geotérmico Las Pailas II, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, the impact of forest openings on the diversit...

Comprender el movimiento de los animales es fundamental para dilucidar cómo las especies no sésiles sobreviven y se reproducen, así como su influencia en los procesos y patrones evolutivos y ecológicos. Al caracterizar los movimientos espaciales de un mamífero neotropical, nuestro objetivo fue generar información con respecto al ámbito hogareño y a...

Form–function studies have established a strong link between dental morphology and the mechanical properties of food items, with animals evolving tooth shapes theoretically ideal for their diets. However, information on how teeth perform under natural conditions is rare, which limits the understanding of how dental morphology influences dietary eco...

Telemetry for calculating home ranges provides meaningful insight into the space use of species, such as understanding important habitat components and patterns. The present study sought to determine the size of the home range of Myotis atacamensis and Amorphochilus schnablii in coastal valleys of Arequipa for the generation of efficient management...

Animal-dispersed plants usually rely upon multiple dispersers. In many ecosystems, most of these interactions have yet to be explored; thus, documenting the extent of contribution of each animal partner to the reproduction and survival of plant species is key to understanding the ecology and evolution of animal–plant mutualism, as well as the poten...

Neotropical Tent roosting bats are in the Phyllostomidae family, in which Artibeus watsoni uses the greatest diversity of plants as a roost. Currently, eight styles of tents are known, and their descriptions are based on leaf size, shape, and the number of cuts needed to create it. Here, we describe the preference for the construction, tent design,...

Animal-plant interactions are ubiquitous and critical for tropical ecosystem functioning. Neotropical rodents perform key ecosystem functions such as seed dispersal and predation, however few information is available regarding their ecological interactions. Here, we reported the interaction between the Sumichrast’s Vesper Rat, Nyctomys sumichrasti,...

Ectophylla alba is a tent‐making bat that roosts in mixed‐sex clusters comprising adults and offspring. Our goal was to determine the genetic identity of individuals belonging to different roosting groups. We tested the hypothesis of kin selection as a major force structuring group composition. We used nine microsatellites designed for E. alba to d...

Assembling feeding links is a task that requires gathering information about the ecological interactions of multiple species. Depending on the studied group, this information can be highly difficult to obtain, for example, dietary information is one of the most valuable and yet poorly known aspects of many Neotropical mammals, and especially of sma...

Mutualistic interactions are biologically important, diverse and poorly understood. Comprehending these interactions and the effectiveness of the mutualistic partners has been the central focus of ecological and evolutionary studies, as this task requires disentangling the pieces of mutualism under study. Here, we tested the hypothesis that feeding...

Neotropical wild rodents from Costa Rica were analyzed for the presence of herpesviruses (order Herpesvirales, family Herpesviridae). Using a broadly generic PCR, herpesvirus sequences were detected in 5% (8/160) of liver and heart samples: seven putative gammaherpesviruses in samples from Talamancan oryzomys (Nephelomys devius), sprightly colilarg...

Nyctinomops laticaudatus (É. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 1805) and Eumops nanus (Miller, 1900) are 2 species with distributions that are expected for Costa Rica. However, voucher specimens that confirm the presence of these species in the country are absent or missing in museum collections. Here we document voucher specimens and present data that confirm...

Furipterus horrens is a small insectivorous bat with distinct clawless tiny thumbs, and with a patchy geographic distribution in the Neotropics. We report the rediscovery of F. horrens in Costa Rica 44 years after it was first recorded. A colony of 100–130 individuals, each one with the distinctive external and morphological characteristics of the...

La industria de energía limpia ha crecido en Costa Rica, especialmente la energía eólica, durante los últimos años. Sin embargo, por lo menos para nuestro mejor conocimiento, la información científica publicada sobre diversidad y tasas de colisión de murciélagos y aves en proyectos eólicos de Costa Rica es inexistente. En este documento resaltamos...

Specialist species are defined by their restricted range of tolerated environmental conditions and required resources. For example, in the New World leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae), specialization in diet has been linked to morphological and behavioral innovations (i.e., skull form, foraging behaviors) that facilitate the occupation of new ecologi...

The strong link between bats and their roosts is widely recognized as being particularly significant. Despite this, roosting ecology of bats is poorly understood and much of the basic information is still unknown. In this study, we investigated the availability and occupation patterns of four roost types (trees, caves, termite nests and tents) used...

Uroderma convexum construct and occupy tents. Tents serve as day shelters and reproductive sites, but also frequently are used as night feeding roosts. We observed and radio-tagged U. convexum occupying tents at Sarapiquí, Costa Rica. Social groups of U. convexum were composed of one adult male, reproductive females, and immature bats apparently fo...

Complex animal–plant interactions are present in the Neotropical bat family Phyllostomidae. Many of these interactions are still unknown, mainly due to the paucity of information available on the diet and habits of these species. The wrinkle-faced bat, Centurio senex , has been always considered as an enigmatic species. However, emerging evidence h...

Although Costa Rica is a small country, it has a high diversity of mammals. The study of mammalogy in the country dates back to the early nineteenth century with the presence of the first European and Costa Rican naturalists as Alfaro and Zeledon. Despite extensive studies in Costa Rica there are still many species of mammals to be recorded. Proof...

We describe for the first time the day roost of the rare Lichonycteris obscura, a small specialized nectar-feeding bat that shows seasonal movements. Roosts were easily accessible cavities at or under fallen trees. As these structures occur frequently on slopes along streams, they are widely distributed, somewhat predictable and may be easily found...

Many animals are capable of constructing structures to modify the environment for their own benefit. The design of these structures requires animals to perceive dimensions. However, how animals take measurements to achieve the final design of the structures they construct is known for only very few species. In the Neotropics, a few bat species buil...