The Short-Nosed Fruit Bat

Bats are unique among mammals because of their true flight and their mysterious life history characteristics. Frugivorous bats play major roles in tropical ecosystems as pollinators and seed dispersing agents. This book deals about postnatal development and foraging behaviour of Indian short- nosed fruit bat Cynopterus sphinx. This book mainly focuses on general information about fruit bats, postnatal development and age estimation, mother- young interactions, wing morphology and flight performance, foraging ecology and role of olfaction in fruit bats. Further, it deals about effect of moonlight on foraging behaviour of frugivorous bats, effect of nutritional quality of fruits on food intake of frugivorous bats and methods of radio-telemetry in the study of behavioural ecology of bats. This book is primarily targeted at professional behavioural ecologist, undergraduate and postgraduate students, conservation biologists, natural resource managers and scientists with a broad interest in ecology, behaviour, evolution and conservation.