Jan Stanisław Boratyński

Polish Academy of Sciences | PAN · Mammal Research Institute

Oxidative stress (OS) and impaired immune function (IF) have been proposed as key physiological costs of reproduction. The relationship between OS and IF remains unresolved, particularly in long-living iteroparous species. We studied physiological markers of maintenance (OS, IF markers) in lactating, post-lactating and non-lactating females of edib...

Maintenance metabolism as the minimum energy expenditure needed to maintain homeothermy (a high and stable body temperature, Tb), reflects the magnitude of metabolic machinery and the associated costs of self‐maintenance in endotherms (organisms able to produce heat endogenously). Therefore, it can interact with most, if not all, organismal functio...

Heterothermy is considered to be the most effective energy-saving strategy improving survival under natural conditions. Interspecific studies suggest that this strategy is also associated with reduced reproductive output. Yet little is known about the reproductive consequences of heterothermy use at the intraspecific level and thus its repercussion...

Metabolic physiology and animal behaviour are often considered to be linked, positively or negatively, according to either the performance or allocation models. Performance seems to predominate over allocation in natural systems, but the constraining environmental context may reveal allocation limitations to energetically expensive behaviours. Habi...

The repeatable among-individual variation in behavior (animal personality) is considered to affect fitness. The variation in personality traits is shaped by complex evolutionary mechanisms involving energy allocation and resource acquisition. However, an association between personality and individual performance in energy gain in the natural enviro...

In the last decades, oxidative stress (OS) has been proposed as a mechanism mediating evolutionary trade-offs between reproduction and survival. Elevated metabolic rate during reproduction increases the risk of OS, which contributes to faster aging and shorter lifespan. Studies showed that animals use oxidative shielding - up-regulation of antioxid...

Metabolic physiology and animal personality are often considered linked to each other, shaping ecological and evolutionary strategies along a life-history continuum. The energy allocation model predicts a negative while the performance model predicts a positive correlation between the rate of metabolic processes and behaviours, such as activity lev...

For the last two decades, behavioral physiologists aimed to explain a plausible covari-ation between energetics and personality, predicted by the "pace-of-life syndrome" (POLS) hypothesis. However, the results of these attempts are mixed with no definitive answer as to which of the two most acknowledged models "performance" or "allocation" predicts...

The repeatable among-individual variation in behavior (animal personality) is considered to affect fitness. The variation in personality traits is shaped by complex evolutionary mechanisms involving mainly energy allocation and resource acquisition. However, an association between personality and individual performance in energy gain in the natural...

We examined the ecology of bat assemblages in the commercially used stands of the Białowieża Forest, Poland. The species composition was analyzed, as well as the relationship between bat activity and distance to buildings and to open waters. The relationship between bat activity and stand age, type of stand (coniferous vs. deciduous), and tree cano...

Small mammals that are specialists in homeothermic thermoregulation reduce their self-maintenance costs of normothermy to survive the winter. By contrast, heterothermic ones that are considered generalists in thermoregulation can lower energy expenditure by entering torpor. It is well known that different species vary the use of their strategies to...

As other heterothermic mammals, the edible dormice spend the majority of their life inactive. Hibernation shorten the active season and reduce mortality risk via predator avoidance. On the other hand, hibernation is associated with gonadal atrophy and thus negatively affects reproduction. That is why the end of hibernation and an earlier emergence...

Passive implanted transponders (PIT-tags) are currently widely use in identification of individuals in animal studies and have successfully replaced most of old-time marking methods. The advantage of this technique is an automatic registration of animal’s presence and storage of collected data. However, main limitation of the automatic systems is h...

Heldmaier’s seasonal acclimatization model predicts that, given their high relative level of energy expenditure, small non-hibernating mammals focus on energy conservation for as long as winter conditions prove unfavorable. They achive a lowering of energy requirements by winter-time reduction of body size/mass, and thus of the basal metabolic rate...

Theoretical modelling predicts that the thermoregulatory strategies of endothermic animals range from those represented by thermal generalists to those characteristic for thermal specialists. While the generalists tolerate wide variations in body temperature (Tb), the specialists maintain Tb at a more constant level. The model has gained support fr...

The evolution of endothermic thermoregulation is rooted in the processes involving high metabolism, which allows the maintenance of high and stable body temperatures (Tb ). In turn, selection for high endothermic metabolism correlates with increased sizes of metabolically active organs, and thus with high basal metabolic rate (BMR). Endothermic ani...

In many mammalian species, variation in body temperature (Tb) exceeds the values suitable for defining homeothermy, making it justifiable and even necessary to resort to the term heterothermic. However, Tb data are only available for ca. 1% of extant mammalian species. We investigated variations in Tb in wild free-living and experimentally food-dep...

The duration of melatonin (MEL) secretion conveys information about day length and initiates a cascade of seasonal phenotypic adjustments in photoresponsive mammals. With shortening days, animals cease reproduction, minimize energy expenditure, enhance thermoregulatory capacity and adjust functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis...

According to theoretical predictions endothermic homeotherms can be classified as either thermal specialists and thermal generalists. In high cost environments thermal specialists are supposed to be more prone to use facultative heterothermy than generalists. We tested this hypothesis on the intraspecific level using laboratory male mice (C57BL/cmd...

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) correlates with the cost of life in endothermic animals. It usually differs consistently among individuals in a population, but it may be adjusted in response to predictable or unpredictable changes in the environment. The phenotypic flexibility of BMR is considered an adaptation to living in a stochastic environment; how...

Dotychczas na terenie Pogórza Przemyskiego stwierdzono 13 gatunków nietoperzy, głównie w ob-rębie Twierdzy Przemyśl i jej bliskich okolicach. W latach 1996-2017 prowadzono badania mające na celu poszerzenie stanu wiedzy o faunie nietoperzy tego regionu. Latem wyszukiwano poten-cjalne kryjówki kolonii rozrodczych, zimą kontrolowano miejsca hibernacj...

As photoperiod shortens with the approach of winter, small mammals should reduce their energy expenditure to survive periods of food limitation. However, within seasons, animals should balance their energy budgets as abiotic conditions change, sometimes unpredictably; cold spells should increase heat production, while warm spells should do the oppo...

In this paper we presented new data about the pond bat (Myotis dasycneme) hibernating in the kujawsko-pomorskie voivodeship (53°30’N, 18°45’E). We found five individuals of this species hibernating in Citadel of Grudziądz. This is the first record of living, hibernating individuals of pond bats in that location. This is also the second hibernation...

During monthly bat surveys carried out in winters of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 we studied clustering behavior of greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) hibernating in the Międzyrzecz Fortified Front (MFF) in western Poland. Since the behavior of hibernating bats is usually affected by varying environmental conditions we measured changes in the ambi...

The paper presents the results of winter bats' censuses in standalone bunkers of Międzyrzecki Fortified Front (MFF) not connected with the Central Part (CS) of underground system of corridors and stations in western Poland. During the years 2005-2012 47 objects were controlled. At least 12 bats’ species (3536 determined individuals) hibernated in s...

A male Brandt’s bat Myotis brandtii was caught in ”Mierzeja Wiślana” Landscape Park in the eastern part of Polish Balic Sea Coast. This, a sexually non-active, more than one year old bat, was mist-netted on the forest crossroad near the Skowronki village (54°21’N, 19°16’E, WGS84) on 30 July 2012. This is the third loca- lity of this species at Poli...

Bats often hibernate in composed of many individuals, homo or hete-ro-specific, groups. We observed clusters of bats in the undergrounds of the Central Section of the Międzyrzecz Fortified Front (MFF). Observations were carried out once a month from October to March during the two winter seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 years. In total, 13 inspec...

An individual behaviour of the Nyctalus noctula was observed during escape from a predator - Strix aluco. This behaviour consisted in loss of predator by the air maneuvers. Then, bat “hid in the predator shadow” by flew close behind him and waited out until owl gives up hunting. The bat flew away safely when the predator ceased searching the lost v...