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Seed and Pollen Dispersal by Small Pteropodid Bats in Lowland Forests of Terengganu, 77
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Seed and Pollen Dispersal by Small Pteropodid Bats in Lowland Forests of Terengganu,
Peninsular Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia

while more than 50 plants taxa were recorded to be an important food source of
these bats (Lim et al., 2018). However, the extent of the interactions between these
bats and their plant food sources is still poorly understood. Thus, we reported the
potential role of small pteropodid bats as seed dispersal and pollinating agents,
from the ingested seeds observed from their faeces, and from the pollen grains
collected from their bodies respectively. The information gained from this study
hopefully will increase the knowledge of these mutualisms between the
pteropodid bats and their plant food source in selected lowland forests in
Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia.

METHODOLOGY

This study was conducted at three selected sites within the Tasik Kenyir area in
Hulu Terengganu District; Saok Waterfall (05° 05’ 051” N, 102° 46’ 788” E)
and Sungai Buweh (05° 08’ 34.7” N, 102° 45’ 43.4” E), and at Gunung Tebu
Forest Reserve (05° 35’ 37.7” N, 102° 40’ 49.1” E) located in Setiu District in
Terengganu State, Peninsular Malaysia (Figure 1). Tasik Kenyir is located
approximately 66 km from the city of Kuala Terengganu, while Gunung Tebu
Forest Reserve is located approximately 64 km from the city of Kuala
Terengganu.

Field samplings were conducted in the year 2016 on only a single occasion at
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Saok Waterfall (24 -30 July) and Sungai Buweh (18 -24 August), and two
sampling occasions (7 - 12 August and 27 August - 1 September) at the
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Gunung Tebu Forest Reserve. For each sampling day, four mist nets were set up
at canopy level (approximately 15 m above ground) and 10 mist nets were set
up at the understorey level. All trapped bats were first swabbed at three different
body parts (snout, body, and wing) with separate cotton wool buds for pollen
grains on their bodies. The cotton wool buds were then preserved in a micro-
centrifuge tube containing 1 ml 70 % ethanol for further pollen identification.
Faeces, if present, were swabbed with the cotton wool buds before removing the
captured bats from the net. Bats were then kept in separate cloth bags for one hour
to defecate. Fresh cloth bags were used every time to avoid contamination of
faecal samples. Faeces found in cloth bags later were swabbed and kept in
individual vials and dried at room temperature for future identification in the
laboratory. Bats then were weighted and measured using a digital balance and a
plastic caliper respectively for species identification following the key provided
by Kingston et al. (2006). Bats were then released at their point of capture. The
taxonomy of the spotted-winged fruit bat, Balionycteris maculata in Peninsular
Malaysia was recently revised and recorded as B. seimundi by Francis (2019).
Thus, in the present study we used the updated binomial name of this species
following the latter report.