IQBAL ET AL.
Bio Palembanica 1.
: 65-70 .
This journal is available online at: https://ejournal.
Notes on the Diurnal Activity of the Enggano Island Flying Fox Pteropus hypomelanus enganus (Chiroptera: Pteropodida.
MUHAMMAD IQBAL1* .
ADI KUSWANTO2 & AGUS SUSATYA3 Department of Biology.
Universitas Indo Global Mandiri.
Jalan Jend.
Sudirman No.
Palembang 30129.
Sumatera Selatan.
Indonesia.
Department of Forestry Program.
Faculty of Agriculture.
Bengkulu University.
Jalan Kandang Limun.
Bengkulu 38371.
Bengkulu Province.
Indonesia E-mail: adikhus@gmail.
https://orcid.
org/0009-0002-4415-686X Department of Forestry.
Faculty of Agriculture.
Bengkulu University.
Jalan Kandang Limun.
Bengkulu 38371.
Bengkulu Province.
Indonesia E-mail: agussusatya@unib.
https://orcid.
org/0000-0002-9369-5651 *Corresponding Author.
E-mail: miqbal@uigm.
https://orcid.
org/0000-0002-6657-0183 Received 16 November 2024iCAccepted by G.
Widayanti: 20 December 2024iCPublished online 24 December 2024.
Abstract Enggano Island Flying Fox Pteropus hypomelanus enganus is an endemic subspecies of bats from Enggano Island.
Sumatra.
Indonesia.
During a field visit to Enggano Island in 2020 and 2021.
hypomelanus enganus was observed always active during daylight, including in flight, looking for food, puffing and cleaning the hair.
Here, we report the diurnal activities of P.
hypomelanus enganus that represent first report behavior for this taxa .
Keywords: behavior.
Bengkulu.
Pteropus hypomelanus.
Small Flying Fox.
Sumatra.
Introduction Bats or taxonomic order Chiroptera are shortly recognizable as a modification of its forelimbs into wings that this trait makes bats certain clearly classified of the mammals group (Kunz & Pierson 1994.
Taylor & Tuttle 2.
They representing about 20 percent of all known global mammal taxa, and the second largest taxa of mammals after order Rodentia .
(Fenton & Simmons 2.
Order Chiroptera are so different with other mammals that to know their lives and their geographic history and to determine them adequately need much more information than that at hand about their morphology and their natural history (Jepsen 1.
Indonesia is one richest country for mammals taxa, particularly for bat species (Suyanto 2001.
Maryanto et al.
Due to its geograpic location and its past link with mainland of Asia.
Sumatra provides the highest chiropterans taxa of any island (Suyanto 2001.
Simmons 2.
, but few researches have interested on SumatraAos bats ecology (Huang et al.
There are at least 80 species recently listed for the Sumatra, from 238 species of bats in Indonesia recently (Kingston et al.
Huang et al.
Maryanto et al.
There are two Sumatra Islands.
Simeulue and Enggano have possibly never had land connection with the mainland Sumatra (Whitten et al.
Iqbal et al.
Iqbal et al.
Located in th Indian Ocean.
Enggano is an isolated tiny island situated 100 km from mainland Sumatra.
Indonesia (Iqbal et al.
2020a, b.
Iqbal et al.
This isolated island has 15 species of mammals, and few of them are endemic subspecies (Sody 1940.
Maryanto et al.
Enggano Island Flying Fox Pteropus hypomelanus enganus is one subspecies of mammals that only found in Enggano and its smaller islands (Miller 1906.
Sody 1.
Pteropus or Flying Foxes are group of bats that highly distinctive Old World fruit bats and nocturnal (Almeida et al.
Giannini 2019.
Giannini et al.
In this paper, we report diurnal activities of P.
hypomelanus enganus that never reported before for this Notes on the Diurnal Methods In 2020 to 2021.
We visited Enggano Island for a biodiversity survey.
The field surveys were made on 28 February to 3 March 2020 and 25 to 31 March 2021.
Enggano island .
A3'S, 102A25'EA) is a small island situated c.
100 km from southwest Sumatran Island.
This island is administratively part of North Bengkulu (Bengkulu Utar.
Bengkulu Province.
Sumatra.
There are few smaller islands in Enggano that formed from dead coral deposited by wave action (Iqbal et al.
Enggano island is inhabited by a small population speaking a language which is difficult to classify (Blench 2.
The island has 402,6 km2 with 106,7 km coastal line and the highest elevation at 281 m above sea level (Maryanto et al.
During our surveys in Enggano Island, we found P.
hypomelanus enganus always observed during daylight, and this observation nearly common in the entire island.
Although the activities of P.
hypomelanus enganus were observed commonly all day during daylight, but we did not noted and documented all of our observations.
Data presented here is based from photographic documentations during fieldwork (Table .
Results and Discussion The bat was identified as P.
hypomelanus enganus by its large size of chiropteran species.
lower back dark blackish.
upper back, neck and back of head pale golden-brown to dark reddish-brown.
varies from dark blackish-brown to buffy brown (Fig.
These morphological features are fitted well with the descriptions of P.
hypomelanus in various guidebooks (Payne et al.
Francis 2008.
Phillipps & Phillipps 2016.
Giannini et al.
Miller .
described P.
hypomelanus enganus (P.
as here: back a rather dark hair-brown, darkest and clearest anteriorly, though everywhere somewhat lightened by a sprinkling of silvery hairs, and along edges of membranes a little suffused with ochraceous-buff.
mantle pale tawny-ochraceous, darkening on sides of neck through hazel to chestnut, this in turn blackening on underside of neck.
behind this blackish area the underparts are nuich like back, except that the brown is darker, the silvery hairs are absent, and the lighter suffusion is more nearly hazel.
The documentations of diurnal activity of P.
hypomelanus enganus in Enggano Island in 2020 and 2021 presented in Table 1.
Table 1.
Observations of diurnal activity of P.
hypomelanus enganus in Enggano Island in 2020 and 2021.
Date 28 Feb 2020 28 Feb 2020 Time 51 A.
33 P.
Habitat Mixed vegetation near the village Coastal vegetation near sandy Vegetation near village and beach 33 A.
04 A.
50 A.
Activities In-flight In flight, then stranded in a tree and looking for food In flight, then stranded in a branch and look like taking a rest In-flight In-flight Cleaning the hair, puff and looking for food 28 Feb 2020 52 P.
29 Feb 2020 01 Mar 2020 02 Mar 2020 25 Mar 2021 24 A.
In-flight Mixed vegetation near the village Mixed vegetation near the village Mixed vegetation near the village Mixed vegetation near the village There are two species flying foxes in Enggano Island.
hypomelanus enganus and P.
modiglianii (Sody 1940.
Maryanto et al.
Compare to P.
hypomelanus, fur of P.
melanotus is black with sprinklingAos of white hairs on belly and mantle (Giannini et al.
It has been reported that P.
hypomelanus enganus occur in Mentawai Island (Mickleburgh et al.
Jones & Kunz 2000.
Tsang 2.
, but it is look like refer to Enggano as part of Mentawai Island in western Sumatran Islands of West Sumatra Province.
It should be interesting to carry out morphological and DNA analyses for two different populations on different islands.
All species seen active during daylight in Enggano Island are P.
hypomelanus enganus, and no observation for P.
melanotus modiglianii.
In first impression, the common P.
hypomelanus enganus seen during daylight is presumed as a raptor.
According to Francis .
, the flying foxes resembles a raptor in flight, but is distinguished by its distinctive shape and slow flapping wingbeat.
In addition, no raptors were recorded in Enggano Island (Junge 1.
, and also absent in the checklist during our visit.
IQBAL ET AL.
Figure 1.
Pteropus hypomelanus enganus hanging in a tree and looking for food on 28 February 2020 in Enggano Island.
Bengkulu.
Sumatra (Photograph: Muhammad Iqba.
Figure 2.
Pteropus hypomelanus enganus flight in the morning on 28 February 2020 in Enggano Island.
Bengkulu.
Sumatra (Photograph: Muhammad Iqba.
Notes on the Diurnal Figure 3.
Pteropus hypomelanus enganus flying around near a tree, roosting and then cleaning the hair on 2 March 2020 in Enggano Island.
Bengkulu.
Sumatra (Photograph: Muhammad Iqba.
General habits of pteropodids are nocturnal as a rule (Giannini et al.
, including P.
hypomelanus may disperse nightly from islands on which they roost to forage on a nearby mainland (Payne et al.
Van Peenen et al.
The observation of diurnal activities of P.
enganus is first report of its predominantly diurnal habits.
The diurnal activities observed during daylight, including in flight, looking for food, puff and cleaning the hair.
Pteropus hypomelanus enganus was observed feeds in a head-down.
Pteropus hypomelanus is a typically species feeds in a head-down position but it also may do so with its head held upward (Phillips 1.
This species is consider as one widespread species that especially ussually in villages, agricultural areas and disturbed forests, indicating that this species has advantaged from large-scale habitat change (Wiles & Brooke A few species of flying fox that inhabit remote islands are partially or predominatly diurnal:
Christmas Island Flying Fox Pteropus melanotus natalis.
Samoan Flying Fox Pteropus samoensis samoensis.
Maldive Island Flying Fox Pteropus hypomelanus maris.
Greater Mascarene Flying Fox Pteropus niger.
Pohnpei Flying Fox Pteropus molossinus.
Chuuk Flying Fox Pteropus pelagicus and Seychelles Flying Fox Pteropus seychellensis (Giannini 2.
It has been suggested that predation risk is low on these islands and temporal niche partioning with some congeneric species, thus facilitating diurnal behavior.
Indonesia is habitat of more a third of all pteropodids (Simmons 2.
, but not many studies have been carried out on these taxa (Tsang & Wiantoro 2.
Pteropus hypomelanus is classified as Near Threatened due to habitat loss and hunting pressure throughout Southeast Asia (Tsang 2.
As an isolated island, the Enggano island has been little explored by researchers, particularly for P.
hypomelanus enganus and other chiropteran taxa.
Further studies, particularly ecological research and population monitoring are recommended to learn possible threats combined with occurrence only on small islands in fragmentary landscapes vulnerable to environmental changes due to global climate change suggests a higher local extinction risk than currently recognized.
IQBAL ET AL.
Acknowledgments Our visit to Enggano island was supported by ZGAP (Die Zoologische Gesellschaft fyr Arten- und Populationsschutz e.
We are very grateful to the ZGAP, particularly to Roland Wirth.
Arne Schulze and Jens-Ove Heckel.
We thank anonymus reviewer for comments earlier draft to made this paper improve.
References