Dawn Bat The Dawn
Bat is a small Southeast Asian rainforest bat which
lives in the mangrove and lowland forests of
Malaysia, Indonesia and Borneo. Its unique and
special place in the rainforest ecosystem has only
been recently discovered. Dawn Bats
have long and slender snouts which give them a
dog-like appearance. Their ears are small and
pointed and their eyes are round and small. The fur
on the dawn bat's back is dark brown and lighter on
their underside. Males have a ruff, or fur collar
around their neck, which is
a
little
darker in color then their head and chest
hair. Females only have sparse hairs around their
necks. The tongue of a Dawn Bat is long and can be
thrust forward into flowers, while brush-like
projections allow it to pick up pollen and nectar.
The male
dawn bat is larger than the female. They weigh from
55 to 82 grams while females weigh 35 to 78 grams.
Dawn Bats are 8.5 to 12.5 cm long from head to
tail. They either have a very small tail or none at
all. Their forearm length is 6 to 8 cm long. The
genus Eonycteris doesn't have a claw on their index
finger like most other bats. Female Dawn
Bats reach sexual maturity after one year while
males become sexually mature in two years. Females
can have babies at any time of the year. Gestation
is a little longer than 6 months, sometimes as long
as 200 days. Usually one pup is born at a time. It
attaches itself to a nipple and holds on for 4 to 6
weeks. After that time it starts to take little
practice flights of its own. They aren't completely
weaned until after 3 months. Dawn Bats
roost in limestone caves found in Malaysia and the
Indonesian archipelago. Small groups of several
dozen will roost in small shelters, while tens of
thousands can inhabit larger caves. Dawn Bats are
nocturnal and emerge from their caves at dusk to
feed on pollen and nectar of night blooming plants.
Their favorite flowers are from the Mangrove Apple
(Sonneratia alba)and the Durian
(Durio zibethinus).
The flowers of the durian tree are large and waxy
and only bloom at night. As the Dawn Bat hangs onto
the flower and pushes its nose deep inside to lick
the nectar, pollen covers its face and chest. They
are the main pollinators of these two trees and
very important to their survival. Peaches,
bananas, avocados, kapok, hemp and latex are some
other plants which depend on bats for pollination.
In Southeast Asia some of the largest caves with
bat colonies are being destroyed by limestone
quarrying. Mangrove swamps, home to the Mangrove
Apple, are being filled in for development,
destroying one of the Dawn Bat's main food
supplies. Bats have been accused of spreading
disease and destroying commercial fruit crops.
However, Dawn Bats prefer ripe and strong-smelling
fruit. Commercial fruit is picked green for
shipping and is therefore rarely damaged by these
bats. Very little
is known about the importance of bats and how
forests depend on them for their survival. But it
is known that they are one of the main pollinators
and seed dispersers for many tropical plants. Bats
often make up more than half of the mammal species
in a rainforest ecosystem and most species of bats
have not been studied. Although
Dawn Bats are being killed by the thousands, they
are not on the CITES or IUCN list as a vulnerable
or protected species. Malaysia has a Wildlife
Protection Ordinance (Amendment 76). However, Dawn
Bats can be killed if they pose a threat to crops
or property. Since many still think they are fruit
pests, the ordinance does little to protect them.
People need to become more educated about the Dawn
Bat to understand how important they and other bats
are to the forests and crops. 2002
bibliography: Photograph
by P. Myers Tuttle,
Merlin D., "Can Rainforests Survive Without Bats?"
BATS. Vol 0, No 1. p.1-2 "mangrove
apple (sonneratia): info fact sheet, photos",
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/plants/sonneratia.htm,
(4/4/02). "1990. ON
THE COVER. BATS. Vol8, No 3:1-2.", Jansa,
Sharon. "Eonycteris spelaea (Dawn Bats (Genus
Eonycteris), Dobson's "CHIROPTERA;
PTEROPODIDAE; EONYCTERIS: Dawn
Bat", http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/walker/chiroptera/chiroptera.pter
opodidae.eonycteris.html,
(3/29/02). "no bats,
no durians: bats as pollinators and
dispersers",
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/pub/naturewatch/text/a062a.htm,
(3/29/02). "bats are
pollinators and dispersers, not
pests",
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/pub/naturewatch/text/a062b.htm,
(3/29/02).
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