Seasonal Activity of Fruit Bats in a Monoculture Rubber and Oil Palm Plantation in the Southern Philippines

Krizler C Tanalgo,Tuanjit Sritongchuay,Alice C Hughes

doi:10.3390/conservation1030020

Abstract

The increasing expansion of monoculture plantations poses a major threat to Asian tropical biodiversity. Yet, in many countries such as the Philippines, the ability of species to persist within plantations has never been explored. We studied the seasonal activity and response of fruit bats in two types of monocultural plantations (rubber and oil palm) in the Southern Philippines from 2016–17 for 12 months. Our mist-netting and monitoring data showed that both plantations can support cosmopolitan species of fruit bats (Cynopterus brachyotis, Eonycteris spelaea, Macroglossus minimus, Ptenochirus jagori, and Rousettus amplexicaudatus), yet a significant variation in the abundance and guild distribution between plantations was observed. Rubber hosted a higher bat abundance than oil palm, which may be influenced by better habitat structure of the matrix (e.g., presence of orchard and fruit plantations) and practices occurring in the rubber plantation. We find that, among seasonal climatic variables, temperature showed significant negative effects on fruit bat abundance. Our results suggest that although monoculture plantations host low diversity (i.e., richness and endemism) they still support generalists which are still ecologically important species. Furthermore, wildlife-friendly commercial plantation practices could both enhance economic growth and biodiversity conservation in the Philippines. Our data both provide the potential for long-term monitoring in the Philippines and highlight the need for more comprehensive monitoring of other bat functional groups and their ability to transverse plantations to provide a more in-depth understanding of the roles and impacts of plantations and other land-use changes.

Highlights

The destruction and degradation of natural ecosystems is a major driver of species loss, at both global and local scales [1,2,3,4]
Other fruit bat species (Megaerops wetmorei and and Haplonycteris fischeri) that that were were occasionally occasionally captured captured in in rubber rubber plantations plantations were were exexcluded from analysis due to low sample sizes
Our monitoring showed that rubber significantly outperforms oil palm plantation in supporting seasonal abundance of fruit bats, with an apparent decrease in nectarivorous bats versus frugi-nectarivorous bats

Summary

Introduction

The destruction and degradation of natural ecosystems is a major driver of species loss, at both global and local scales [1,2,3,4]. A substantial proportion of bat fauna is dependent on intact stands of forest for foraging and roosting, and the loss of forest is a major threat [7]. Numerous studies and models have shown evidence of the negative impacts of plantations on biodiversity and ecosystem service provision, yet the expansion of commercial plantations into native systems is continuing [5,10,11,12].

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