Data from: Morphological and physiological consequences of a dietary restriction during early life in bats

Early life adverse conditions can have major consequences on an
individual’s life history traits. Oxidative stress has been hypothesized
to be one main mechanism underlying the negative consequences of early
life adverse conditions. To test this hypothesis, we restricted the food
availability of Seba’s short-tailed bat (Carollia perspicillata) mothers
of unweaned pups for 10 days, followed by ad libitum provisioning. We also
had a control, unrestricted group. We explored the morphological
consequences of dietary restriction during early life by measuring growth
rate. We also measured four markers of blood oxidative balance during
growth. We assessed the level of cortisol, and its inactive form
cortisone, in the hair of the pups at the end of growth. Finally, we
monitored survival during the first year. Food restriction triggered a
slowdown in growth followed by catch-up growth when ad libitum feeding was
restored which did not lead to full compensation in size or mass compared
to control individuals. We found that higher growth rate was associated
with elevated oxidative damage, suggesting an oxidative cost to
growth.However, we found no clear evidence for physiological costs
specific to the catch-up growth. Survival after a year was not impacted by
the treatment, the oxidative balance or the level of glucocorticoids at
the end of growth. In conclusion, our results show that individuals were
able to efficiently mitigate the short-term consequences of adverse early
life conditions. However, consequences might arise on the long-term, and
could impact reproductive success or lifespan.