Abstract
We report a sequence of behaviors exhibited by the short-nosed fruit bat Cynopterus sphinx while feeding on fruits of Mangifera indica. They peel off the outer skin to form a feeding area of about 3–6 cm diameter. Such food preparatory behaviors were more pronounced on larger mangoes. Bats competed among themselves to feed on the mangoes that had such feeding areas exposed. Individuals that spent a considerable amount of time on food preparatory behaviors actively secured the fruits. Altogether, these behaviors indicate that Cynopterus bats might have learnt, over evolutionary time, and developed behaviors that facilitate efficient processing and feeding of fruits such as mangoes. It appears that actions exhibited by C. sphinx in peeling off the outer skin of mangoes exemplify “extractive foraging”, a behavior that is prominently known in large-brained mammals. Thus, our findings will have implications on the distribution and evolution of extractive foraging and “technical intelligence” among mammalian lineages.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to M.K. Chandrashekaran, Ido Izhaki, Permut Robin and two unknown reviewers for corrections and comments to improve the manuscript. We thank R. Dhanabalan, R. Alagarsamy, J. Venkatesh, J. Siva, K. Madhan, and K. Rajesh for their strenuous and tireless assistance in the field. We thank K. Janarthanan and K. Chandrasekaran––jamindhars of Sandhaiyur––for permitting us to use their mango orchards for this study. Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India, supported this work through a research grant to G.M. Bat Conservation International (BCI, USA) provided a research grant through a scholarship to NS.
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Singaravelan, N., Marimuthu, G. In situ feeding tactics of short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) on mango fruits: evidence of extractive foraging in a flying mammal. J Ethol 26, 1–7 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-007-0044-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-007-0044-1