Flying foxes, the genus Pteropus, are considered viral reservoirs. Their colonial nature and long flight capability enhance their ability to spread viruses quickly. To understand how the viral transmission occurs between flying foxes and other animals, we investigated daytime behavior of the large flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus) in the Leuweung Sancang conservation area, Indonesia, by using instantaneous scan sampling and all-occurrence focal sampling. The data were obtained from 0700 to 1700 hr, during May 11–25, 2016. Almost half of the flying foxes (46.9 ± 10.6% of all recorded bats) were awake and showed various levels of activity during daytime. The potential behaviors driving disease transmission, such as self-grooming, mating/courtship and aggression, peaked in the early morning. Males were more active and spent more time on sexual activities than females. There was no significant difference in time spent for negative social behaviors between sexes. Positive social behaviors, especially maternal cares, were performed only by females. Sexual activities and negative/positive social behaviors enable fluid exchange between bats and thus facilitate intraspecies transmission. Conflicts for living space between the flying foxes and the ebony leaf monkey (Trachypithecus auratus) were observed, and this caused daily roosting shifts of flying foxes. The ecological interactions between bats and other wildlife increase the risk of interspecies infection. This study provides the details of the flying fox’s behavior and its interaction with other wildlife in South-East Asia that may help explain how pathogen spillover occurs in the wild.
Flying foxes belonging to the genus Pteropus are known to be reservoirs of zoonotic viruses. In this study, we describe the isolation of Pteropine orthoreovirus (PRV) from rectal swab samples of Pteropus vampyrus in Indonesia. PRV is an emerging zoonotic respiratory virus that can be transmitted from bats to humans. Rectal swabs (n = 91) were screened by PCR for PRV and 10 (11%) were positive. Phylogenetic analysis based on nucleotide sequences indicated that the S2, S3, S4, M3, L2, and L3 segments of one isolate (Garut-69) were closely related to previously isolated strains in Indonesia. The remaining gene segments showed both similarity and genetic divergence with other PRV strains, suggesting that re-assortment events had occurred. This is the first report of PRV infection to P. vampyrus in West Java, Indonesia.
Flying foxes are important in the maintenance of forests and diversity. However, knowledge of their behavioral ecology, especially of movement and foraging patterns, which are essential for conservation and management of their populations, are not well known. Therefore, movement behavior of two individuals of Pteropus vampyrus were examined using an Argos telemetry system, and foraging pattern of Pteropus spp. was directly observed, at West Java province, Indonesia in October 2017. The maximum distance between the location at which bats were released and their furthest roost, recorded via satellite telemetry, was approximately 100 km. This reflects the long-distance flight ability of P. vampyrus. Daytime roosting sites and nighttime foraging places consisted of several types of habitats, such as intact forests, agricultural lands, and residential areas. This evidence indicated that there was habitat overlap between humans and bats in West Java province. According to direct observation of the behaviors of flying foxes at two locations within residential areas, various activities such as wing spreading, excretion, fighting, aggressive calls, movement, hanging relax, and hanging alert were found. The number of bat-visits to the trees varied among night hours, and had a positive correlation with the number of fruit dropping. The data obtained in this study have improved our understanding of nighttime behavior and habitat utilization of P. vampyrus, that can be used to support landscape management, species conservation, and disease prevention in regions of Southeast Asia.
About 75% of contagious diseases in the world are classified as zoonosis. One among wild animals suspected to spread the disease is bat. Bats have an important role in the spreading of viral diseases. Fruit bat is among bat species that may potentially transmit diseases to human. The transmission of diseases to human population should be associated with the ecology, behavior of bats and bat-human interaction. We observed the fruit bats ecology and behavior in their roosting sites during daytime (from sunrise to sunset) and in human villages area during night. The observation was conducted in Leuweung Sancang National Park, Garut, West Java. Bats often moved around to find a roost that meets their needs. In daytime bats hanged on cave near of beach for taking a rest and in night bats came to plantation in human villages for food. The plantation were cottonwood tree, guava tree, sapodilla tree, mango tree and rubber tree. The dominant behavior activity of bats in groups during daytime was sleeping. Other activities of bats in its group were aggression, self-grooming, wings flapping, biting, playing, fighting and maternal care. The solitary behavior of bats including sleeping and hang-relax or relaxing. The existence of bats interactions (direct contact and body fluid exchange) between individuals in the social behavior and in solitary behavior suggested a possibility of transmission of the agents among the bats such as parasite, bacteria and virus. Based on the observation, human ever had direct contact with bats such as catching and eating the bats or indirectly through contact with the bat feces and or eating the fruit eaten partly by the bats. These direct and indirect contact between human and bat may suggest a possibility of disease transmission to human.
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