Improving the Role of Frugivorous Bats in Forest Restoration

Abstract

Fruit-eating bats are amongst the main seed dispersers, so that any technique that improves this ecological role may have large application in forest restoration projects. Following this idea, we conducted tests with essential oils isolated from mature chiropterochoric fruits that revealed that these oils are able to attract frugivorous bats both inside forest remnants and in open areas (as abandoned agricultural or pasture fields). Additionaly, our results showed that the feces of most bats attracted by the oils contained seeds, indicating that they were already fed. So, the use of essencial oils of fruits consumed by bats in specific sites, as along a river whose riparian forest was destroyed or in a property that no longer has forest reserve, potentially increases seed rain in these sites. Due to the large application of this new technique, we are presently conducting further studies in order to measure seed rain and forest regeneration induced by essential oils, as well as to identify the components responsible for bat attraction and sinthesize them.