The Short-Tailed Fruit Bat: A Study in Plant-Animal Interactions

The Short-Tailed Fruit Bat: A Study in Plant-Animal Interactions
ISBN-10
0226253287
ISBN-13
9780226253282
Category
Nature
Pages
365
Language
English
Published
1988-10-11
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Author
Theodore H. Fleming

Description

As dusk settles over the Costa Rican forest, the short-tailed fruit bat, Carollia perspicillata, stirs from its cave roost. Flying out to search for ripe fruit, Carollia returns to a night roost in the forest vegetation to eat. After a few such flights Carollia rests, and the fruits pass through its short digestive tract. The seeds are excreted onto the ground, to be eaten in turn by mice and insects, but a few are pushed into crevices where they await the necessary conditions for germination. In The Short-tailed Fruit Bat, Theodore Fleming examines Carollia's role in the ecology of tropical forests. Based on more than ten years' research, this study provides the most detailed ecological and evolutionary account to date of the life history of a Neotropical mammal and includes striking photographs of the bats in flight.

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