Abstract
Simple SummaryThe purpose of this paper is to review the literature pertaining to the bat faunas of the western Indian Ocean islands, particularly in light of the identification of many new species on Madagascar and the taxonomic reassignment of others, and to summarise details of their general biology, feeding ecology, reproduction and conservation.The natural colonisation of many remote oceanic islands by bats, including those of the western Indian Ocean, has been facilitated by their unique capability among mammals for powered flight. In the western Indian Ocean region, only the Malagasy islands of Madagascar and the Comoros archipelago have been naturally colonised by non-volant mammals. Despite their greater potential for inter-island dispersal, and thus gene transfer, endemicity of Chiroptera in the western Indian Ocean islands is high. Given their vulnerability to stochastic and anthropogenic disturbances, greater focus needs to be placed on investigating the demographic and ecological history of bats on Western Indian Ocean islands to safeguard not only their future, but also the ecosystem functioning on these islands, for which they are undoubtedly such an integral part. Here, I summarise the taxonomic and life history information available on bats from Western Indian Ocean islands and highlight knowledge gaps and conservation issues that threaten the continued persistence of some species.
Highlights
The diversity of geological histories for the western Indian Ocean islands, make them a fascinating study of evolutionary history
There is some evidence of geographic partitioning of the sympatric species of Triaenops on Madagascar: T. auritus is restricted to the north and northwest, T. furculus is restricted to the central west and southwest, while T. menamena is widespread, but only in the dry habitat of the island [23]
Rousettus obliviosus, which is sympatric with P. livingstonii and P. seychellensis comorensis on some of the Comoros islands, does not compete with Pteropus, at least for roost sites, since Pteropus is tree-roosting, while Rousettus roosts in large colonies in caves [39]
Summary
The diversity of geological histories for the western Indian Ocean islands, make them a fascinating study of evolutionary history. The granitic Seychelles and Madagascar are continental fragments, as Animals 2011, 1 old as the major landmasses themselves Isolated volcanic mounts, such as Réunion and Mauritius, have a diversity of ages ranging from 2.1 to 15 million years [1]. Coral atolls such as Aldabra and Mayotte, and archipelagos such as the Maldives have undergone repeated inundations due to rising sea levels during the Holocene and so can be considered relatively young. The large distances between Indian Ocean islands presents an even greater challenge to island colonisation for smaller bats (see below), compared to their fruit bat counterparts. Molecular investigation has indicated that the classic grouping of Microchiroptera is, paraphyletic with the super-family Rhinolophoidea (Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, Megadermatidae and Rhinopomatidae) a sister group to the Megachiroptera, forming a Yinpterochiroptera clade, and the remaining species forming the Yangochiroptera clade [4,5], but see [6], and it is this classification system that is followed here
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