Chronic traffic noise increases food intake and alters gene expression associated with metabolism and disease in bats

Anthropogenic noise exposure has deleterious effects on the foraging ecology of many animals. However, the effects of chronic anthropogenic noise on food intake and health condition in wildlife remain largely unknown.
We tested whether traffic noise exposure over multiple days would change food intake and would have effects on the health of Asian particoloured bats. We broadcast traffic noise to the bats of two noise-exposure groups (group A, 5 bats; group C, 6 bats) and broadcast silence files to the bats of two control groups (group B, 5 bats; group D, 6 bats) for 12 days. We measured the changes in food intake, body weight, and concentration of faecal triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) in groups A and B. We compared the transcriptional profiles in brain, kidney and liver tissues between bats in groups C and D.
The bats exposed to traffic noise had a significantly higher daily food intake and a significantly greater body weight than bats in control group during the period...