Seventy-nine percent of species of the family Pteropodidae are Asian and 21% are African (Marshall, 1983). Pteropus spp. range extends west to Madagascar, east to the Cook Islands, north to the Himalayas and south to Australia.
Peninsular Malaysia hosts 13 species of fruit bat and at least 60 species of insectivorous bats (Field et al., 2001). Bats comprise 40% of all mammals in Malaysia (Zubaid 1993).
P. vampyrus is sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance and roosts in mangroves and dense forests (Mohd-Azlan et al., 2001). Roosting locations appear dependent on certain tree species. In Malaysia, Mohd-Azlan et al. (2001) reported P. vampyrus roosting in Durio spp., Alstonia spathulata, Palaquium xanthochymum, Avicenia spp., Brugueira spp., and an unidentified species belonging to family Anacardiaceae. Most Pteropus roost in trees; Eonycteris, Notopteris, and Rousettus spp. tend to roost in caves (Marshall 1983).
Only four main roosting sites have been found for P. vampyrus in peninsular Malaysia; a swamp/mangrove habitat in Ulu Nenasi-Kg. Meranti, Pahang; a managed mangrove in the Matang Forest Reserve and the Belum Forest Reserve in Perak; and a mangrove in Benut, Johor (Mohd-Azlan et al., 2001). An 11-month survey in 1999 of the 115 foraging or roosting locations in which P. vampyrus had ever been reported (orally and in published and official literature) in peninsular Malaysia could not find evidence of recent visitation by P. vampyrus in 40% of the sites. The authors note that “All of the local villagers interviewed reported marked declines in numbers compared to previous years, particularly during the fruiting season” (Mohd-Azlan et al., 2001). (This obviously would not hold true had interviews been conducted near Ampang, pursuant to Chua 2002.) It appears that in Perak, most of the abandoned foraging and/or roosting sites are upland forests, whereas most of the sites still visited are orchards and mangroves; this trend does not hold for other states (Table 1, Mohd-Azlan et al., 2001). No permanent roosts occur in the states of Perlis and Kedah, which contain only small forest patches surrounded by rice paddies, oil palm, and rubber plantations.
In peninsular Malaysia, C. brachyotis roosts in members of the Palmae family, Cymbidium finlaysonianum, Philodendron lacerum, Dracaena fragrans, and Scindapsus aureus (Tan et al., 1997). They are well adapted to human disturbance and have been reported in primary forest, disturbed forest, mangroves, cultivated areas, orchards, gardens and urban areas.
Australia has 58 species of Microchiroptera and seven species of flying fox, though one (P. brunneus) is probably extinct and two (P. banakrasi and P. macrotus) are restricted to islands in the Torres Strait. The four mainland species are P. poliocephalus (grey-headed flying fox, endemic to Australia), P. alecto (black flying fox), P. scapulatus (little red flying fox), and P. conspicillatus (spectacled flying fox). Radio-tracking experiments show that P. poliocephalus frequently moves between colonies hundreds of km away, suggesting high genetic flow (Spencer et al., 1991). The range of P. alecto is extending southward (Richards, 1995).
Camps of P. scapulatus, P. poliocephalus, and P. alecto occur in rain forests, mangroves, Melaleuca swamps, in stands of Salax babylonica and Casuarina spp. along rivers and waterholes, and occasionally in open forests (Nelson, 1965b).The range of P. poliocephalus overlaps most with human habitation. The species is highly mobile, averaging 250 km between banding and retrieval over 15 months. The ranges of P. poliocephalus and P. alecto overlap in southeastern Queensland (Webb and Tidemann, 1996).
P. alecto and P. poliocephalus congregate in large summer camps; P. poliocephalus also shares camps with P. scapulatus. In September and October, most individuals in the camps are pregnant females and their newborn young. Camp populations peak in December and January and segregation begins in March. The stimulus for dispersion is probably food shortage, and the dispersed populations are usually highly nomadic (Nelson, 1965b).
Author: S. Cobey.