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<p>Human-wildlife conflicts (HWC) constitute a growing threat to biodiversity and coexistence, with lethal control or culling often adopted to mitigate perceived damage to crops and other resources. In the case of fruit bats, such culling campaigns are typically driven by concerns over losses to cultivated fruits, yet these interventions often fail to achieve their intended outcomes and can exacerbate conflicts or generate new ones. Non-lethal solutions require understanding HWC’s root causes, while biological invasions, especially on islands, pose additional threat that may worsen conflicts, yet their connection remains largely unexplored. Studying <i>Pteropus niger</i>, a species central to one of the most severely worsening HWC worldwide, we investigated how frugivory and granivory by invasive alien macaques and rats, influence the reproduction of a native tree species whose fruits are consumed by the bat, focusing on seed predation and germination across different dispersal distances from adult trees in adjacent native forests weeded of invasive alien plants (IAP) and invaded forests. Seed predation by rats was higher in native forests cleared of IAP, particularly near mother trees, compared to invaded forests. Unlike bat-attacked fruits, macaque-attacked fruits were mostly unripe and dispersed &lt; 4&#xa0;m from mother trees and their seeds had lower germination rate when sowed ex situ. In IAP-weeded forests, trees produced more seeds, which bats dispersed three times more effectively than macaques, enhancing regeneration, but seed predation by rats was higher, especially near mother trees. Control of IAP, rats and macaques are recommended as non-lethal strategies to alleviate HWC by increasing both the immediate and longer-term natural availability of native fruits for bats, respectively through reduced competition of trees with weeds and bats with macaques, and through improved regeneration of native tree’s whose fruits are eaten by bats.</p>

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Invasive alien plants, rats and macaques reduce native food availability for an endangered mass-culled flying fox through multiple mechanisms with short to long-term effects

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月22日

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  • Vashist Omprasad Seegobin,
  • Ryszard Zbigniew Oleksy,
  • François Benjamin Vincent Florens

摘要

Human-wildlife conflicts (HWC) constitute a growing threat to biodiversity and coexistence, with lethal control or culling often adopted to mitigate perceived damage to crops and other resources. In the case of fruit bats, such culling campaigns are typically driven by concerns over losses to cultivated fruits, yet these interventions often fail to achieve their intended outcomes and can exacerbate conflicts or generate new ones. Non-lethal solutions require understanding HWC’s root causes, while biological invasions, especially on islands, pose additional threat that may worsen conflicts, yet their connection remains largely unexplored. Studying Pteropus niger, a species central to one of the most severely worsening HWC worldwide, we investigated how frugivory and granivory by invasive alien macaques and rats, influence the reproduction of a native tree species whose fruits are consumed by the bat, focusing on seed predation and germination across different dispersal distances from adult trees in adjacent native forests weeded of invasive alien plants (IAP) and invaded forests. Seed predation by rats was higher in native forests cleared of IAP, particularly near mother trees, compared to invaded forests. Unlike bat-attacked fruits, macaque-attacked fruits were mostly unripe and dispersed < 4 m from mother trees and their seeds had lower germination rate when sowed ex situ. In IAP-weeded forests, trees produced more seeds, which bats dispersed three times more effectively than macaques, enhancing regeneration, but seed predation by rats was higher, especially near mother trees. Control of IAP, rats and macaques are recommended as non-lethal strategies to alleviate HWC by increasing both the immediate and longer-term natural availability of native fruits for bats, respectively through reduced competition of trees with weeds and bats with macaques, and through improved regeneration of native tree’s whose fruits are eaten by bats.