Acerodon jubatus (the Golden-Crowned flying fox) is an endemic species
in the Philippines, which was suspected to be a host of the Reston strain of the Ebola
virus. As nocturnal animals, the flying foxes spend daytime at the roosting site, which
they use for self-maintenance and reproduction. To understand the variation in diurnal
behavior and time allocation for various activities in the Golden-Crowned flying fox, we
investigated their daytime behavior and activity budget using instantaneous scan sampling
and all occurrence focal sampling. Data collection was performed from 07:00 to 18:00 hr
during January 8–17, 2017. The most frequent activity was sleeping (76.3%). The remaining
activities were wing flapping (5.0%), self-grooming (4.2%), hanging relaxation (3.4%),
wing spread (2.9%), movement (2.4%), mating/courtship (2.4%), aggression (1.9%), hanging
alert (1.2%), excretion (0.1%) and scent marks (0.05%). The frequency of sleeping, wing
flapping, self-grooming, hanging relaxation, aggression, mating/courtship and movement
behaviors changed with the time of the day. Females allocated more time for resting than
males, while males spent more time on the activities that helped enhance their mating
opportunities, for example, movement, sexual activity and territorial behavior.