Prediction of Foraging Strategy Through The Wing Morphology of Three Forest Fruit Bats

Abstract

Wing morphology is an important indicator of the foraging ecology of bats, as they may constrain the foraging habitats bat can use, the types of food items that they can detect, and how those resources are perceived. The fruit eating bats differ from insect eating bats in their foraging patterns. Low aspect ratio, short wingspan and high wing loading in respect to that of the body size has provided them with commuting foraging flights covering wider area. Three of the megachiropterans species of the present study shown remarkable variation in their flight patterns depending on their wing morphology. But all of them show broad wing with high wing loading enabling them to attain a moderate flight speed which provide them sufficient foraging time and long-distance commuting flight. But they show variation in their wingspan, aspect ratio and wing tip length and wing tip shape. This variation helps each one of them to attain species-specific manoevrability flight in cluttered area, low cost of transport and agility. This variation in turn reflects their foraging pattern and selection of food items. The present study has made an attempt to focus on the variation in the wing morphology of three forest fruit and correlated with foraging strategy.