| Publication Type: | Book |
| Year of Publication: | 2005 |
| Authors: | M. M. Picot |
| Number of Pages: | vii+78 pp., Annexes I-XXIV |
| Publisher: | DEA-thesis |
| City: | Université d’Antananarivo |
| Keywords: | Africa, Chiroptera, diet, Eidolon dupreanum, food, frugivory, Madagascar, Pteropodidae, seed dispersal, tropical forests |
| Abstract: | This study examines seed dispersal in the endemic fruit bat Eidolon dupreanum and its potential role in forest regeneration of Malagasy rainforest. Faecal analysis of dropping collected under roosting bats and feeding was used to determine the diet from April 19th to May 25th 2004. The regenerating vegetation around day roosts was also assessed, to describe characteristics of seed dispersal. E. dupreanum is principally a frugivorous species and 15 species of fruiting tree were found during this study. Flowers and leaves are occasionally eaten. A selectivity index revealed that E. dupreanum preferentially eats fruit from the rainforest (e.g. Polyscias spp.) even though cultivated fruits were available in abundance during the study. E. dupreanum may thus be a specialist species as opposed to a generalist species, as it eats only 20.4% of the species whose fruits are available. By regularly feeding inside the forest and returning to roost sites situated outside of the corridor, E. dupreanum is a potentially important long-distance seed disperser. Its use of anthropizised zones may facilitate the regeneration of small areas of natural forest outside of the main forest corridor. Given the importance of E. dupreanum to ecosystem function and the high-levels of roost disturbance from hunters, conservation planning should include the roost sites of fruit bats when they fall outside of protected areas. |