As dusk settles over the Costa Rican forest, the short-tailed fruit bat, "Carollia perspicillata," stirs from its cave roost. Flying out to search for ripe fruit, "Carollia" returns to a night roost in the forest vegetation to eat. After a few such flights "Carollia" rests, and the fruits pass through its short digestive tract. The seeds are excreted onto the ground, to be eaten in turn by mice and insects, but a few are pushed into crevices where they await the necessary conditions for germination.
In "The Short-tailed Fruit Bat," Theodore Fleming examines "Carollia"'s role in the ecology of tropical forests. Based on more than ten years' research, this study provides the most detailed ecological and evolutionary account to date of the life history of a Neotropical mammal and includes striking photographs of the bats in flight.
- ISBN10 0226253287
- ISBN13 9780226253282
- Publish Date 11 October 1988
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 15 June 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Chicago Press
- Edition 2nd ed.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English