Satellite Telemetry and the Landscape Ecology of Migratory Fruit Bats

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Fruit bats are important pollinators and seed dispersers in many tropical ecosystems. We think that they can influence the distribution patterns of plants and alter the ways in which nutrients (such as nitrogen and carbon) are cycled. However, ecologists don't really know enough about fruit bats to say more than this. Bats are technically difficult to study because they are small, nocturnal, fast-flying, and far-ranging. In this pioneering study, the investigators will use lightweight satellite transmitters to track the long distance movements of migratory straw-colored fruit bats from their colony at Kasanka, in northern Zambia. The Kasanka colony is the largest known aggregation of fruit bats in the world, numbering an estimated 5-10 million. The bats are present at Kasanka from October to December. Ecologists currently have no idea where they come from or where they go to when they leave Kasanka, beyond the observation that they fly north (i.e., towards the equator). In addition to providing more information about bats, this project will test an approach that could provide fantastic opportunities for the study of many small, far-ranging organisms that until now, have been extremely difficult to track. Anticipated results will also be of relevance for the long-term sustainability of forests and human livelihoods in one of the poorest parts of the world. If the Kasanka bats make an important contribution to the long-term sustainability of fruit production in northern Zambia, understanding the habitat needs of the colony will be essential for conservation efforts in the region.