Fruit diet of frugivorous bats (Cynopterus brachyotis and Cynopterus horsfieldii) in tropical hill forests of Peninsular Malaysia
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Christine Fletcher
,
Zubaid Akbar
Abstract
The fruit diets of two species of frugivorous bats (Cynopterus brachyotis and Cynopterus horsfieldii) were investigated over a 12-month period in the tropical hill dipterocarp forest of the Sungai Lalang Forest Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia, a place where ecological studies are lacking. Mist nets were used to capture bats, and seeds were collected from faecal samples and/or fruit remnants found together with netted bats, from seed traps placed beneath feeding and/or day roosts, and at feeding trees. Fruits of 18 identified plant species from 10 families were consumed by one or both species, eight of which are species not previously reported as plants consumed by Cynopterus spp. Seeds collected from faecal collections, seed traps under roosts and feeding trees suggested that Ficus spp., Piper aduncum and Pternandra echinata are important food sources and thus should be considered keystone resources for sustaining populations of Cynopterus spp., especially when other preferred plant species such as Nauclea subdita and Elaeocarpus stipularis were not in flower/fruit. This study is among the very few to document the fruit diet of frugivorous bats in the tropical hill forests of Peninsular Malaysia, results that highlight the conservation importance of these species.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Editorial
- On the history of European mammalogy
- Reviews
- The contribution of Edouard-Louis Trouessart to mammalogy
- Gerrit Smith Miller: his influence on the enduring legacy of natural history collections
- Sergey Ivanovitch Ognev and the formation of theriology in Russia
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- Book reviews
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Editorial
- On the history of European mammalogy
- Reviews
- The contribution of Edouard-Louis Trouessart to mammalogy
- Gerrit Smith Miller: his influence on the enduring legacy of natural history collections
- Sergey Ivanovitch Ognev and the formation of theriology in Russia
- Original Studies
- Breeding periods of Gerbillus cheesmani (Rodentia, Muridae) in Saudi Arabia
- Fruit diet of frugivorous bats (Cynopterus brachyotis and Cynopterus horsfieldii) in tropical hill forests of Peninsular Malaysia
- Seasonal variations in small mammal-landscape associations in temperate agroecosystems: a study case in Buenos Aires province, central Argentina
- Carnivores in burned and adjacent unburned areas in a Mediterranean ecosystem
- Factors determining occupancy of Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) during differing river discharges in the upper Ganges, India
- Altitudinal effects on habitat selection in two sympatric pipistrelle species
- C-banding and Ag-NOR distribution patterns in Euphrates jerboa, Allactaga euphratica (Mammalia: Rodentia), from Turkey
- Short Notes
- Expansion of the known range of Marmosops incanus (Mammalia, Didelphimorphia, Didelphinae) to the right bank of the São Francisco River in north-east Brazil
- Diurnal capture reduces the colony size of Hipposideros armiger (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae)
- First record of the pale-winged dog-like bat Peropteryx pallidoptera (Chiroptera: Emballonuridae) for Brazil
- The Quaternary record of Reithrodon auritus (Rodentia: Cricetidae) in northwestern Argentina and its paleoenvironmental meaning
- Book reviews
- Book reviews
