Male reproductive patterns in hibernating bats

Early reports on studies of reproduction in bats that hibernate (Families Vespertilionidae and Rhinolophidae) described various aspects of form, function, and periodicity in both males and females (e.g. Benecke, 1879; Eimer, 1879; Fries, 1879; Van Beneden, 1880; Robin, 1881; Vogt, 1881; Duval, 1895a, b; Rollinat & Trouessart, 1895a, b, c, 1896, 1897; Rauther, 1903; Branca, 1904; Schoenfeld, 1904; Jordan, 1912; Retterer & Neuville, 1913). Collectively, these accounts suggested that the reproductive events and patterns operative in hibernating bats were markedly different from those of other mammals. However, it was the extensive work of Courrier (1920, 1923a, b, 1926a, b, 1927) and that by Vignoli (1930) that clearly demonstrated the unusual reproductive cycles of male hibernating bats. These studies, as well as subsequent related investigations, have not only set hibernating male bats apart from their nonhibernating counterparts but also from other male mammals, hibernators or otherwise.