Correction: ‘Vampire bats rapidly fuel running with essential or non-essential amino acids from a blood meal’ (2024), by Rossi and Welch

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Biol. Lett. 20, 20240453 (Published online 06 November 2024). (https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0453)

Following the publication of our study entitled, ‘Vampire bats rapidly fuel running with essential or non-essential amino acids from a blood meal’, published in Biology Letters in 2024 [1] an astute reader alerted us to an error in the data we included. Specifically, the reader noted that the cost of transport (CoT; J m^−1^) data we presented did not seem plausible and asked us for clarification. Upon re-examination of the spreadsheet summarizing the data analysed in our article, we discovered that these data were not CoT data at all, but were a miscopied column of data that incorrectly calculated metabolic rate in W. Subsequently, we have recalculated both total (gross) and net CoT data. We show the corrected figure 2 below, specifically replacing the errant panel (D) with correct total and net CoT data. We have also corrected text in the Material and methods section of the manuscript to specify that both total and net CoT were calculated. We have revised three sentences in the Results section to report the corrected total and net CoT data. We have also amended the Discussion section to include a short reflection on the CoT data and its interpretation but conclude that the lack of more data on the cost of locomotion within each of the two observed gaits frustrates further interpretation of CoT data. Textual corrections to the article and online electronic supplementary material are highlighted in the accompanying electronic supplementary material.

Importantly, the erroneous CoT data we originally reported were not key data relative to our focal hypotheses. Thus, this correction has a negligible effect on our conclusions and in no way alters the principle finding that these bats rapidly and extensively support their walking and running with newly ingested amino acids. We apologize for this error and again thank the reader that alerted us to this mistake.