How Does a Common Fruit Bat Respond to Habitat and Environmental Variables Within an Isolated Green Zone of an African Urban Landscape?

Abstract

Given the high rate at which urban landscapes across Africa expand, continuous monitoring of adaptations and responses to ongoing habitat changes is a prerequisite for effective conservation management of key ecosystem components, hereunder important seed dispersers such as fruit bats. We used the widespread and habitat generalist Gambian Epauletted Fruit Bat Epomophorus gambianus as an ecological model species and tested whether environmental variables linked to urbanisation were related to aspects of their roost and foraging behavioural ecology. Within an isolated green zone (the University of Ghana campus), situated in the otherwise heavily urbanised Accra, Ghana, a prime focus was assessing the relationship between habitat and environmental features as against roost and foraging behavioural ecology. We radio-tagged and tracked a total of 11 bats, thereby detecting 22 roosts and 16 foraging trees, in which repeated bat counts, as well as environmental variables, were recorded during 3–4 months in 2022. We show that E. gambianus preferred older, large, shady exotic teak, mango, and the West African legume Millettia thonningii as roost trees, whereas Coastal golden-leaf fruit Bridelia micrantha and mangoes were preferred for foraging. Female roost fidelity was relatively high, with females using fewer trees more evenly than males, indicating sexual dimorphism related to larger roost and foraging ranges, higher territoriality, and more opportunistic male reproductive traits.