On the diet of Rhinophylla alethina (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) and congenerics
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Sebastián Montoya-Bustamante
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Natalya Zapata-Mesa
und
Oscar E. Murillo-García
Abstract
Rhinophylla is a genus of frugivorous bats endemic to South America, with Rhinophylla alethina restricted to the Biogeographic Chocó in the western Andes. Despite its Near Threatened status, little is known about its ecology. To fill this gap, we carried out 16 seven-night field samplings in a tropical rainforest, analyzing fecal samples to document its diet. R. alethina consumed fruits from at least six plant families: Araceae, Capparaceae, Cyclanthaceae, Gesneriaceae, Moraceae, and Piperaceae. These findings improve our understanding of its diet, revealing shared plant associations across the genus, and highlighting the species’ potential role in maintaining vertical complexity in forests.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Amparo Bubú, Baltazar González, Isabela Vivas-Toro, Jefferson Panche, Julio Salinas, Juliana Hoyos-Loaiza, Laura Obando, Luisa Ruano, Luis C. Mora, Maria A. Hurtado-Materón, Natalia Rivera, and Rodrigo Lozano for their fieldwork assistance. We thank Alvaro Montoya for helping us to photograph seeds. We thank the Consejo comunitario del Alto y Medio Dagua (CC-AMDA) for allowing us to access to Pericos.
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Research ethics: Not applicable.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: All authors conceived methods and ideas, SMB and NZM did the fieldwork. All authors contributed to the manuscript writing. All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: ChatGPT (GPT – 5) has been used to improve clarity of the text.
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Conflict of interest: All authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: This study was partially funded by the Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación of Colombia (Colciencias) through a Jóvenes Investigadores e Innovadores 2015 fellowship granted to SMB. SMB and NZM thank the Ministerio de Ciencias, Tecnología e Innovación of Colombia for their scholarships (Doctorados en el Exterior 860).
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Data availability: All collected and compiled data, along with the code to reproduce Figure 2 are available on GitHub via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17617846.
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