A study of the bat-fruit syndrome on Mauritius, Indian Ocean

This study was conducted over a seven month period on Mauritius, Indian Ocean, and concerns the relationship between the endemic fruit bat Pteropus niger and 19 food plants upon which it feeds in regard to the bat-fruit syndrome. This is a set of fruit characteristics which suggest an adaptation to fruit bat dispersal noted throughout the world where fruit bats occur. This study has found some evidence of an adherence to the bat-fruit syndrome. Twenty-one percent of the food plants had five of seven characteristics in accordance with the syndrome, 32% had four, 21% had three, 21% had two and 5% of the species had one of the seven bat fruit characteristics. Although the concept of the bat-fruit syndrome is difficult to prove, some of these species may be classified as bat-fruit trees; a species of particular interest was Labourdonniasia glauca. Other food plants had only few traits in accordance with the bat-fruit syndrome, some of which appeared to be adapted to bird dispersal, suggesting a more diffuse relationship between these plants and their seed dispersers and a generalist or opportunistic feeding strategy of P. niger.