Why are fruit bats important? It’s because any large mammal that can move a significant distance is critical for functioning ecosystemsHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More. This is how animals differ from plants. Migration is the mechanism that allows animals to create a liveable environment for each other. Take 20 minutes to read this introduction to the concept of Animal Impact and find out what I mean.
#1 Fruit bats are nomadic colonialists
Hidden among the trees and skies of our planet are animal driven processes that we are barely aware of. Though rest assured, their constant effort is massive. By contrast, after you remove human dependence on cars and planes, we are mostly sedentary. Being a heavy bipedal ape means we can’t quite comprehend the scale at which other animals migrate. And so, we tend to assume, like us, that they live in one place all their lives.
There are few animals better equipped than fruit bats, to help rebuild a habitable world.
Australia’s Grey-headed Flying Foxes are nomadic colonialists. In a single year, they will transit many dozens of roosts, on a constant quest for food. Instead, we prefer to use the word ‘camp’ as these residences are more like motels than permanent residences. And each night, the bats fly out to disperse over distances of 50km or more.
In actual fact, it’s not unusual for fruit bats to travel 6,000 km a year. For instance, one individual clocked up over 12,000 km between Melbourne and Brisbane.
#2 They are the breakdown mechanics of ecosystems
Distribution of fruit bats in the environment is what makes them significant. These movements each day between roost sites and feeding areas is like the steady beating of a heart or rising and falling of breaths. And it’s this consistency and rhythm, connected with a predictable environment, that keeps everything functioning like clockwork.
In a recent workshop, Australia’s leading fruit bat ecologist, Peggy Eby, exclaimed “fruit bats generate their own ecosystems”. We were talking about their importance to the integrity of whole landscapes. But the greater wisdom in Peggy’s words, and one that many ecologists still find hard to accept, is that fruit bats create the environment we live in. The fact is, a healthy relationship with fruit bats, is healthier for people.
The impact these animals have is not just for themselves because no animal can exist in isolation. It’s because all animals are connected, that we need to respect the space we share with fruit bats.
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Biodiversity conservation makes us healthy, this is not a social construct
Vox magazine just published an article under the social media banner ‘biodiversityWhat is the definition of biodiversityWhat is the definition of biodiversity? When we ask, what is the definition of biodiversity? It depends on what we want to do with it. The term is widely and commonly misused, leading to significant misinterpretation of the importance of how animals function on Earth and why they matter a great deal, to human survival. Here I will try to More? When we ask, what is the definition of biodiversity? It depends on what…
A large flying mammal can cross roads, deforestation corridors and farmland. There are few animals better equipped than fruit bats, to help rebuild a habitable world. This means that their conservationWhy is animal conservation important? Animal conservation is important, because animals are the only mechanism to create biodiversity, which is the mechanism that creates a habitable planet for humans. Without animals, the energy from today’s plants (algae, trees, flowers etc) will eventually reach the atmosphere and ocean, much of it as carbon. The quantity of this plant-based waste is so More and our future are entwined. They are one of the animals most likely to be able to restore ecosystems that are breaking down.
#3 Fruit bats maintain ecosystem structure
As we were talking about population decline, I asked about how colony-size had changed. It turns out that fruit bats have gone from occurring largely in a smaller number of very large colonies, to a large number of small colonies, in a few decades.
I think this dilution effect is symptomatic of the stress we are placing on animal function(Of an ecosystem). A subset of ecosystem processes and structures, where the ecosystem does something that provides an ecosystem service of value to people. More all over the world. Because, as we degrade ecosystems, food becomes harder to find. So, by spreading out, animals are doing the biological equivalent of taking brooms to the street, gathering up leaves and trying to bring them back into neat piles. This is how mobile animals can keep ecosystems in a steady state.
Here’s a model of optimum particles sizes in concrete. Substitute stones for the foraging radius of flying fox camps and this might be describing the structure of a healthy ecosystem. Ecosystem structure begins to crumble when the largest camps are removed, to be replaced with smaller components. The gaps this creates, reduces the ecosystem’s vitality and that is what leads to a decline in overall health and productivityThe power of an ecosystem to process energy. The most productive ecosystems have reached a steady stable-state with maximum entropy production. That’s to say, the number of species has reached an optimum and the functions they fulfil, have translated free surplus energy into nutrients that is either stored inside plants and animals, or is entrained within the biological cycles that More.
Fruit bats are connected to everything from forests to fresh water, climate regulation and food.
#4 Fruit bats keep ecosystems healthy and in order
Watch the streams of fruit bats leaving their roost for the night. Much like the way seabirds head out to the ocean, they are going to collect surplus energyEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More and gather it back in concentration patches, where it is of greater use to other animals.
However, the more we erode natural values and rerelease this energy, the more it blows those piles back into the street. Habitat fragmentation and the undermining of populations of wildlife, contribute to a decline in wildlife’s ability to maintain order on one side, while simultaneously increasing chaos(Of energy and ecosystems). Ecosystems are thermodynamically driven. Disorder occurs when energy dissipates and becomes more chaotic. For example, the release of hot air into the atmosphere results in that energy is freer to disperse (maximum entropy). The opposite is true when energy is locked into biological processes, when it is stored inside molecules (minimum entropy). Stability in ecosystems occurs More on the other.
Fruit bats are important because they maintain order. And they are among the most abundant, widespread and mobile of all the large mammals that still choose to live alongside us. Without them, we have no hope of rebuilding a habitable world.
