Page 88 - JWP 120122

86 Mohammad Naufal Mohammad Shah, Khairul Bariah Mohd Johan, Azuan Roslan, Hasrul Zaman
80 Mohammad Naufal Mohammad Shah, Khairul Bariah Mohd Johan, Azuan Roslan, Hasrul
Hassan Basri, Elizabeth Pesiu, Muhammad Aidil Zahidin, Mohd Tajuddin Abdullah & Mohamed Nor
Zaman Hassan Basri, Elizabeth Pesiu, Muhammad Aidil Zahidin, Mohd Tajuddin Abdullah &
Zalipah
Mohamed Nor Zalipah

Table 1. List of pteropodid bats recorded at the lowland forests of Terengganu.

Number Number
Species name Common name of of faecal
individuals samples
Balionycteris seimundi Spotted-winged fruit bat 5 0
Cynopterus brachyotis Lesser short-nosed fruit bat 34 14
Cynopterus horsfieldii Horsfield’s fruit bat 12 6
Macroglossus sobrinus Greater long-tongued nectar bat 4 2
Megaerops ecaudatus Temminck’s tailless fruit bat 4 1
Penthetor lucasi Dusky fruit bat 5 1
Total 64 24

Seed and Pollen Load as Indication of Dispersal Activities

The majority (20 from the total 24 samples) of faecal samples collected were from
C. brachyotis (14 samples) and C. horsfieldii (6 samples). Seeds were observed
only in 16 samples (67%) from three bat species (Figure 2) except for the Greater
long-tongued nectar bat, M. sobrinus and the Dusky fruit bat, Penthetor lucasi.
For C. brachyotis, from the total 14 faecal samples collected, 10 samples or 71%
contained seeds, while for C. horsfieldii, five samples from the total six (83 %)
contained seeds. The Ȥ with Yates’ Correction calculated however showed no
2
significant difference in the number of samples with and without seeds for both
bat species (C. brachyotis, Ȥ = 1.78, df = 1, p > 0.05; C. horsfieldii, Ȥ = 1.50, df
2
2
= 1, p > 0.05).

Only three types of seeds were observed (Figure 3) from a total of 800 seeds
present in the faecal samples. Only C. brachyotis was found with two types of
seeds while the other two bat species recorded only a single seed type in the faeces
(Table 2). The most abundant seeds were from Type 1, which was recorded for all
individuals of C. brachyotis (except for one) and C. horsfieldii. The number
(mean + SE) of Type 1 seeds carried by C. brachyotis (56.22 + 16.87, n = 9) and
C. horsfieldii (57.20 + 34.80, n = 5) individuals however was not significantly
different between the two species (Mann-Whitney Test, U = 22.50, p > 0.05). The
only faecal sample collected from the Temminck’s tailless fruit bat, M. ecaudatus,
recorded the presence of a different seed types (Type 3) than those reported for
the other two Cynopterus species.