The Diet of the Cave Nectar Bat (Eonycteris spelaea Dobson) Suggests it Pollinates Economically and Ecologically Significant Plants in Southern Cambodia.

ABSTRACT

Hoem Thavry, Julien Cappelle, Sara Bumrungsri, Lim Thona, and Neil M. Furey (2017) The importance of the cave nectar bat Eonycteris spelaea as a pollinator of economically significant crops and ecologically important plant species is increasingly documented, although information on the plants visited by this widely distributed bat species is currently confined to Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. We undertook a dietary study on E. spelaea by sampling faecal rain produced by a colony in Kampot, southern Cambodia each month for one year and identifying plant taxa visited by the bats by their pollen. Our results indicate the diet of E. spelaea in Cambodia includes at least 13 plant taxa, eight of which were identi ed to genus or species. Pollen of Sonneratia spp. and Musa spp. had the highest mean monthly frequency at 30.9% and 16.9% respectively, followed by Oroxylum indicum (11.3%), Bombax anceps (11.2%), Parkia spp. (9.8%), Durio zibethinus (6.3%), Ceiba pentandra (6.0%) and Eucalyptus spp. (0.3%). With one exception, all of the plant taxa recorded at our study site are also visited by the bat species in Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand, although their relative dietary contributions differ. This variation likely reflects local differences in the availability, proximity and flowering phenology of chiropterophilous plants between regions, but also suggests a reliance of Cambodian bats on species that ower continuously, coupled with periodic shifts to species that ower profusely for short periods. Only three signi cant colonies (> 1,000 bats) of cave-roosting pteropodids are currently known in Cambodia, all of which are in Kampot and threatened by bushmeat hunting and roost disturbance. We recommend public education and law enforcement e orts to conserve these colonies, not least because Kampot is the premier region for Cambodian durian and this crop depends on nectarivorous bats for fruit set. Protection of mangroves would also bene t durian farmers because these are an important resource for nectarivorous bat populations.