Strange Illustration No.58
Name: Fruit Bat
Latin scientific name: Rousettusleschenaulti
Family: Pterocarpus
Distribution area: tropical and subtropical
Features: large eyes, short tail, not covered by skin membranes
Bats must be familiar to everyone, but everyone's impression of bats is to stay in the blood of mammals to eat blood for vampires, eat fruit bats have you heard?
Morphology and distribution of fruit bats
Fruit bats are the largest bats, some with wingspans of up to 2 meters, also known as flying foxes, which use the fruits in the orchard to survive. Fruit bat ear shell is simple, oval, no ear screen and the opposite ear screen; the eyes are developed, the vision is good; the tongue is very developed, and the types of pollen and nectar are particularly prominent, and can be extended far out of the mouth.
Fruit bats are widely distributed, mainly in the tropical and subtropical, from the western Indian Ocean islands such as Mauritius, Madagascar, the Comoros Islands in the west, along the Himalayan region of Pakistan, India, through Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea and the islands in the southwest of the Pacific Ocean, east to Australia.
The population of Fruit Bat in China is large, mainly distributed in Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Fujian and other provinces and regions.
Spread of fruit bats to species
Fruit bats are vital to biodiversity because they pollinate flowers and disperse seeds, allowing trees and plants to grow and spread. Large fruit-eating bats mainly eat the fruit directly on the tree, and most of the residual fruit and seeds fall under or near the tree, while the small and medium-sized fruit-eating bat will show a "often return" behavior between the fruit trees, usually temporarily perched on the tree, and after obtaining the fruit, move to other places to eat. Most of the fruits eaten by large fruit bats are green or dark, while small and medium-sized fruit bats are mainly brightly colored and contain high protein, fat and sugar.
Some fruit bats will eat the seeds together, and the seeds are then excreted with the feces, and the fruit bats even excrete in flight, which can spread the seeds throughout the forest, and this behavior of fruit bats is very helpful for the spread of seeds.
Fruit bats and human diseases
Fruit bats and the spread of human viral diseases are also greatly related, bat populations have a lot of viruses are zoonotic viruses, large and small viruses up to 80 kinds, including the Ebola virus we are familiar with, the results of the study show that fruit bats on Ebola virus can remain poisonous without disease, fruit bats are the natural host of these diseases, which shows that fruit bats carry viruses have potential harm to humans.
In some parts of Africa, bats are delicious, fruit bat soup is said to have a light milk flavor, and some scientists speculate that the outbreak of Ebola virus was caused by human consumption of fruit bats at the beginning. It is also believed that the virus is transmitted from fruit bats to fruits, and humans eat fruits infected by the virus, and then human-transmitted people cause the widespread spread of Ebola virus.
The crisis of fruit bats
But recently Mauritius fruit bats can be in big trouble, the Mauritian government mass hunting of fruit bats, the University of Mauritius ecologist Vincent Florence said that the number of fruit bats in the last four years fell by more than 50%, some scientists believe that now less than 30,000. The IUCN has called on Mauritius to request an end to the phase-out of fruit bats, and scientists have even sued the Mauritian government, with biologist and bat scientist Tigga Kingston saying the fewer fruit bats left, the more vulnerable they are to natural disasters, diseases and habitat losses that could eventually lead to extinction.
In Mauritius, Africa, the primary forest is constantly being cut down, and now the fruit bat can only live on a small island called Rodriguez Island in Mauritius, and the life of the fruit bat is really difficult, the living space is constantly decreasing, and it has to be preyed upon by the locals.
Pictured from: Network
Fruit bats have always had a lot of right and wrong, they can take the seeds of plants and fruits elsewhere, allowing species to spread, and they are the natural host of viruses, carrying viruses that can be transmitted to humans. This fruit-loving bat has advantages and disadvantages, but there is no perfect species in the world, and no matter what, humans should live in harmony with them, destroy the habitat of fruit bats on a large scale, and ultimately damage humans themselves.
Breeder on duty today/Chu Ming
photo/Google
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