The timing of hibernation represents a key seasonal transition in the annual cycle of hibernators, directly impacting their survival and reproductive success. Ongoing climate change affects many of the factors that influence hibernation phenology, such as weather patterns, food availability and the timing of mating and reproduction. The extent to which individuals should adjust their hibernation phenology in response is likely...

Interactions with microbes are ubiquitous, and many of them are essential for the survival and success of plants. In Nepenthes pitcher plants, they occur as part of a diverse community of organisms, so-called inquilines, that live inside the digestive fluid of the pitcher traps . However, evidence is ambiguous regarding the role of microbial inquilines: they may complement the plants’ prey digestion, fix atmospheric N, act as...

Roosts are a crucial resource for bats, which choose them based on many factors, including the surrounding habitat, microclimate, and space available for communal roosting. The latter is important because many bat species benefit from social thermoregulation by forming colonies in their roosts. However, it remains unclear whether bats can base their roost choice directly on the space available for roosting when other character...

How well populations can cope with global warming will often depend on the evolutionary potential and plasticity of their temperature‐sensitive, fitness‐relevant traits. In Bechstein's bats ( Myotis bechsteinii ), body size has increased over the last decades in response to warmer summers. If this trend continues it may threaten populations as larger females exhibit higher mortality. To assess the evolutionary potential of bod...

Animals often respond to climate change with changes in morphology, e.g., shrinking body size with increasing temperatures, as expected by Bergmann’s rule. Because small body size can have fitness costs for individuals, this trend could threaten populations. Recent studies, however, show that morphological responses to climate change and the resulting fitness consequences cannot be generalized even among related species. In th...

Animal species differ considerably in longevity. Among mammals, short-lived species such as shrews have a maximum lifespan of about a year, whereas long-lived species such as whales can live for more than two centuries. Because of their slow pace of life, long-lived species are typically of high conservation concern and of special scientific interest. This applies not only to large mammals such as whales, but also to small-siz...

Emerging infectious diseases pose a major threat to human, animal, and plant health. The risk of species‐extinctions increases when pathogens can survive in the absence of the host. Environmental reservoirs can facilitate this. However, identifying such reservoirs and modes of infection is often highly challenging. In this study, we investigated the presence and nature of an environmental reservoir for the ascomycete fungus Ps...

Within‐species genetic diversity is crucial for the persistence and integrity of populations and ecosystems. Conservation actions require an understanding of factors influencing genetic diversity, especially in the context of global change. Both population size and connectivity are factors greatly influencing genetic diversity; the relative importance of these factors can, however, change through time. Hence, quantifying the d...

Bats are a diverse and widespread order of mammals. They fulfill critical ecosystem roles but may also act as reservoirs and spreaders for zoonotic agents. Consequently, many recent studies have focused on the potential of bats to spread diseases to other animals and to humans. However, virus transmission networks within bat colonies remain largely unexplored. We studied the detection rate and transmission pathway of astroviru...

Animals have evolved different cognitive processes to localize crucial resources that are difficult to find. Relevant cognitive processes such as associative learning and spatial memory have commonly been studied in a foraging related context under controlled laboratory conditions. However, in natural environments, animals can use multiple cognitive processes to localize resources. In this field study, we used a pairwise choic...

Information about the population genetic structures of parasites is important for an understanding of parasite transmission pathways and ultimately the co‐evolution with their hosts. If parasites cannot disperse independently of their hosts, a parasite’s population structure will depend upon the host’s spatial distribution. Geographical barriers affecting host dispersal can therefore lead to structured parasite populations. Ho...

Investigating macro‐geographical genetic structures of animal populations is crucial to reconstruct population histories and to identify significant units for conservation. This approach may also provide information about the intraspecific flexibility of social systems. We investigated the history and current structure of a large number of populations in the communally breeding Bechstein's bat ( Myotis bechsteinii ). Our aim w...