Chestnut short-tailed bats, Carollia castanea, and Seba's short-tailed bats, C. perspicillata (Phyllostomidae), were radio-tracked (N = 1593 positions) in lowland rain forest at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Orellana Province, Ecuador. For 11 C. castanea, mean home range was 6.8 ± 2.2 ha, mean core-use area was 1.7 ± 0.8 ha, and mean long axis across home range was 438 ± 106 m. For three C. perspicillata, mean home range was 5.5 ± 1.7 ha, mean core-use area was 1.3 ± 0.6 ha, and mean long axis was 493 ± 172 m. Groups of less than five C. castanea occupied day-roosts in earthen cavities that undercut banks the Tiputini River. Carollia perspicillata used tree hollows and buildings as day-roosts. Interspecific and intraspecific overlap among short-tailed bats occurred in core-use areas associated with clumps of fruiting Piper hispidum (peppers) and Cecropia sciadophylla. Piper hispidum seeds were present in 80 percent of the fecal samples from C. castanea and 56 percent of samples from C. perspicillata. Carollia perspicillata handled pepper fruits significantly faster than C. castanea; however, C. castanea commenced foraging before C. perspicillata emerged from day-roosts. Evidence for exploitative competition between C. castanea and C. perspicillata is suggested by our observations that 95 percent of ripe P. hispidum fruits available at sunset disappear before sunrise (N = 74 marked fruits). Piper hispidum plants produced zero to 12 ripe infructescences per plant each night during peak production. Few ripe infructescences of P. hispidum were available during the dry season; however, ripe infructescences of C. sciadophylla, remained abundant.Abstract in Spanish is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/btp.

Figs (Ficus species) are an important resource for a diverse array of organisms in most tropical forests (Janzen 1979 but see Gautier-Hion & Michaloud 1989). The inflorescence of Ficus, hereafter referred to as the ‘fig’, is an enclosed receptacle lined with unisexual flowers. The flowers of Ficus species are pollinated by wasps that feed on galled fig ovules as larvae and that lay eggs in fig flowers as adults (Weiblen 2002). Ripe figs are consumed by vertebrate frugivores, which are the primary dispersers of fig seeds (Shanahan et al. 2001). The interaction between figs, pollinators and frugivores introduces the potential for conflict between the roles of raising fig wasps and dispersing seeds. Specifically, the pollination mutualism could be compromised if frugivores consumed figs containing pollinator larvae. This conflict is resolved in very different ways according to the breeding system of the fig.

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Lesser bare–backed bats (Dobsonia minor [Pteropodidae]) are solitary and roost in foliage of understory and subcanopy trees in lowland rain forest. These 70–90 gram frugivorous bats forage in primary and secondary forest and in abandoned gardens. At the Kau Wildlife Area in Papua New Guinea, movements (N = 1041) of four males and four females fitted with radio transmitters were monitored for 1 to 18 months. Mean home range within 30–day sampling periods was 5.1 ha (N = 12). There were no significant differences in home ranges by sex or by dry–wet season. Females, however, had significandy larger mean core–use areas than males (1.43 ± 0.61 and 0.65 ±0.16 ha, respectively). There was moderate overlap in home range and core–use areas among some simultaneously tracked animals. The long axes of home ranges varied from 150 to 1150 m and the mean was significantly larger in females. Individuals commuted from day roosts to multiple feeding areas, sometimes resulting in disjunct core–use areas and home ranges. Fruits of native Fiats species and the exotic shrub Piper attuncum were staple food items. Piper aduncum grew as dense clusters within early successional habitats, and individual plants ripened 5–20 fruits per night throughout the year. Ficus spp. grew in primary and secondary forest and fruited asynchronously, but individual trees produced tens to thousands of ripe fruits over 7 to 10 days. Three adult female D. minor were tracked over multiple periods spanning 2.5–18 months. Although each female continued to visit a core–use area containing P. aduncum throughout the study, turnover of other core–use areas reflected the ephemeral locations of fruiting fig trees.