Pteropus rufus^P1

Pteropus rufus
Madagascar Flying Fox
Le Renard volant malgache
Fanihy

The largest bat in Madagascar, a long pointed nose and ears. Top of the head is partly pale yellow or orange, snout, back and hind quarters are brown. No obvious tail.

	m	f
mass	700g	533g
wingspan	125cm	122cm
total length	25.2cm	24.3cm

Behavior

These are fruit bats. They will fly great distances ^{.4Mb V1} (up to 40km (25miles) in some cases) to find fruit. They will also eat pollen and leaves and are known to be important pollinators. (Garbutt 1999, Long 1995)

They roost in groups of several hundred to several thousand individuals, a roost site in the Sahatavy valley contained approximately 4000 bats and did not appear to be seasonal (Long, 1995), while a roost site at Berenty is seasonal with a few hundred there in the austral summer and a thousand or so in the fall and winter. This roost consists of several large adjacent trees, 6 or so in the off-season, 20 or more at the peak ^{.7Mb V2}. The roost is a very noisy place during the day, and the bats are easily disturbed (by humans or large raptors). (GW, personal observation)

Most mating takes place in April and May (though some occur at other times), births in October. At the start of the mating season the genitalia on male bats becomes larger. Males check the estrus status of females by smelling their genitalia ^{1.2Mb V3}. Mating takes place when hanging upside-down from tree branches, males will approach females from behind, grab them by the scruff of the neck with their jaws and attempt to pin their wings. (Long E.)

During the mating season, dominant male bats have territories on the roost tree which they patrol to exclude other males. A hareme of female bats will roost within their territory and the males will also check the oestrus status of the females ^{.8Mb V4}. Outside the mating season most territories are not maintained (though some bats do tend to roost in the same place year round). (Long E.)

There are feeding territories as well, established by dominants on desirable fruit trees.

They also maintain a certain amount of "personal space", spacing themselves along a branch so that no one bat is too close to any other.

In hot weather they will fan themselves with their wings to cool down ^{.7Mb V5}, they may lick themselves, or urinate on themselves to provide evaporative cooling (Wells 1995). They will self groom ^{1.1Mb V6}.

Diet

P. rufus has a mainly liquid diet consisting mostly of fruit pulp squeezed to extract the juice (Long 1995), this process will often cause the bat to swallow small seeds as well. Gut passage is short, 15-35 minutes, so seeds are often eliminated in flight (rather than at the roost tree). Sometimes fruit will be removed from the original tree and eaten at another (a "feeding-roost"). Thus even large seeds can be dispersed.

Examination of fecal material indicates that the bats also consume pollen and leaves, presumably to make up for the low protein levels available in fruit. A little under two thirds of their feces come from fruit, about a quarter from leaves, and about a sixth from pollen. (Long, 1995)

At least 16 species of plant were utilized by the bats in the Sahatavy Valley (near Zahamena Reserve). (Long, 1995)

Predators

• Humans
  They are hunted for food with slingshots. (GW, personal observation)
• Raptors
  • Goodman reports finding a dead bat under a Polyboroides radiatus tree with its talon marks in the bat. (Goodman & Pigeon, 1991)
  • Garbutt reports that they fly off if disturbed by raptors (Garbutt 1999)
  • Wells reports that the bats were not disturbed by (nor did they alarm call at) small raptors (Buteo brachypterus, Falco peregrinus, nor Corvus albus). (Wells, 1995)
• Weather
  A cyclone at Berenty in 1999 decimated the bat colony there

Some birds (Casmerodius albus and Anhinga melanogaster) which compete with the bats for nest sites have been observed to drive off the bats. (Wells 1995)

Vocalizations

Wells describes 6 vocalizations in his unpublished honours thesis:

• Squawk
• Male Whinny
• Female Whinny
• Chatter
• Squak
• Honk

Goodman, SM & Pigeon M., 1991, "Madagascar Harrier Hawk Polyboroides radiatus preying on flying fox Pteropus rufus", The Ostrich, 62(3-4): 215-216

Long, E. 2001, personal communication

Long, E. 1995, "Some aspects of the feeding ecology of Pteropus rufus in north east Madagascar", in Well, M., Long, E., Palmer, G.,Taylor, A., Tedd. J. and Grant, I. (eds.) Project Madagascar 1994: Final Report of University of Aberdeen Expedition to Zahamena Nature Reserve, Madagascar. pp 30-35. Dept of Zoology, University of Aberdeen. Unpublished report.

Long, E.(in litt) "Comments on the behavior and ecology of Madagascar Fruit Bats (Pteropus rufus) at Berenty Reserve in southern Madagascar." University of Aberdeen (unpublished PhD research).

Wells, M. 1995, "The Roost ecology of the Malagasy Flying Fox (Pteropus rufus)", in Well, M., Long, E., Palmer, G.,Taylor, A., Tedd. J. and Grant, I. (eds.) Project Madagascar 1994: Final Report of University of Aberdeen Expedition to Zahamena Nature Reserve, Madagascar. pp 30-35. Dept of Zoology, University of Aberdeen. Unpublished report.

Wells, M., 1995. University of Aberdeen (unpublished Honours Thesis).

Peterson, R.L., Eger, J.L. & Mitchell, L. 1995. Chiroptères: Faune de Madagascar. Vol 84. Natural History Museum, Paris

flying foxes^P2

Flying foxes roosting in tamarind tree, Berenty^P3