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Geographic patterns in the diet of the Old World fruit bats: a review

Fruit bats of the family Pteropodidae are distributed in Africa, Asia, and Oceania, including many Pacific islands. Although known as good seed dispersers, there is no broader assessment of the diversity of the diet of the genera (44 to 46 recognized genera) across different localities. We analyzed the frugivorous diet of the family Pteropodidae through an extensive bibliographical review, using consumption records to document bat-fruit relations across the Old World and variation among the biogeographic realms proposed by Holt et al. (2013). Our review resulted in 239 studies and 2.597 records of 33 bat genera consuming 642 species of 320 genera from 104 angiosperms families. The most consumed fruit genus was Ficus, in almost all zoogeographic realms. However, bat-fruit relationships vary among realms with numerous links to regionally endemic plant species, suggesting a relation between the bats’ distribution and diversification of the associated flora. The genus Pteropus in particular, shows a strong geographic pattern in diet composition. Data of this nature help to visualize patterns in resource use among different regions of the globe and across diverse bat species assemblages and can direct further research on the evolution of pteropodid bats, their critical food resources, and their role in seed dispersal and ecosystem processes.