The anapeka is a species of megabat found throughout lowland areas of Brixta and in southern Troe. At up to 4.8 lb in weight, it is among the heaviest bats in the world. It is a gregarious animal which roosts with hundreds or thousands of individuals. It may forage during the day or night in search of figs or fruits.
Description Biology and Ecology Diet and Foraging In Culture
Description
The pelage is long and silky with a dense underfur. Individuals have a "mantle" of contrasting fur color on the back of their head, the shoulders, and the upper back. They lack tails. Their heads resemble that of a small fox because of their small ears and large eyes. Females have one pair of mammae located in the chest region. Their ears are long and pointed at the tip and lack tragi. The outer margin of each ear forming an unbroken ring. The toes have sharp, curved claws.
The megabats, including anapekaes, have the greatest encephalization quotient of any bat family at. This value is equivalent to that of domestic dogs. Anapekaes display behaviors that indicate a reliance on long-term information storage. Though they have wide-ranging movements and cover thousands of square kilometers annually, they are consistently able to locate the same resource patches and roosts. They will visit these resource patches consistently in a strategy known as trap-lining. They can also be conditioned to perform behaviors, such as one study where spectacled anapekaes were trained to pull a lever using juice as a reinforcement. In a follow-up to the initial study, individuals who had learned to pull the lever to receive juice still did so 3.5 years later.
Anapekaes rely heavily on their sense of smell. They have large olfactory bulbs to process scents. They use scent to locate food, for mothers to locate their pups, and for mates to locate each other. Males have enlarged androgen-sensitive sebaceous glands on their shoulders that they use for scent-marking their territories, particularly during the mating season. The secretions of these glands vary by species—of the 65 chemical compounds isolated from the glands of four species, no compound was found in all species. Males also engage in "urine washing", meaning that they coat themselves in their own urine.
Anapekaes do not echolocate, and therefore rely on sight to navigate. Their eyes are relatively large and positioned on the front of their heads, giving them binocular vision.
Biology and Ecology
The anapeka is a monogamous breeder once they reach sexual maturity. Anapeka sexual behaviors include oral sex in addition to intercourse. Opposite-sex oral sex is associated with increased duration of intercourse, while same-sex fellatio is hypothesized to encourage colony formation.
Anapeka gestation length varies among species; gestation length is 150–180 days. Females have a litter size of one young at a time, called a pup. Twins have been occasionally documented, however. Twins can be fraternal, identical, or the result of superfetation. Pups are altricial and sparsely furred at birth, thereby dependent on their mothers for care. Pups are relatively small at birth, weighing approximately 12% of the mother's weight. They cling to their mothers' abdomens, gripping her fur with their thumb claws and teeth; females carry the pups for the first several weeks of life. After this, the females may leave the pups behind at the roost at night while they forage. As with nearly all bat species, males do not assist females in parental care. Pups fledge beginning at 3 months old but may not be weaned until 4–6 months old. Pups may stay with their mothers until age one. Anapekaes do not reach sexual maturity until 2-3 years old. Females can have up to two litters annually, though one is the norm due to the long weaning period. Females remain fertile with no decrease in reproductive capability for at least the first 12 or 13 years of life.
Anapekaes, like all bats, are long-lived relative to their size. In the wild, average lifespans are likely 15 years. In captivity, individuals can live approximately 20–28 years. The longest-lived anapeka lived to age 33.
Most anapeka species are gregarious and form large aggregations of individuals called colonies or "camps." A few species and subspecies are solitary.
Colony size varies throughout the year in response to biological needs. Colony formation is based on both the sex and age of individuals, as well as the season. In the winter breeding season, adult females will form colonies that include a few adult males. Subadults will form mixed-sex "subadult groups" with each other. In the summer, however, individuals are solitary, with the exception of nursing females, who roost with their pups.
Diet and Foraging
Anapekaes consume 25–35% of their body weight daily. They are generalists that will consume a variety of items to meet their nutritional needs. Food items include fruit, flowers, nectar, and leaves. They will sometimes deliberately consume insects such as cicadas as well. Crops eaten by anapekaes include sisal, cashew, pineapple, areca, breadfruit, jackfruit, neem, papaya, citrus, fig, mango, banana, avocado, guava, sugar cane, tamarind, grapes, and more.
In captivity, the recommended diet for anapekaes consists of two-thirds hard fruits like pears and apples and one-third soft fruits. Bananas and other high-fiber fruits should only be offered occasionally, as anapekaes are not adapted to high-fiber diets. Protein supplements are recommended for captive anapekaes; other supplements such as vitamin C, calcium, chondroitin sulfate, and glucosamine can be recommended periodically.
The majority of anapeka species are nocturnal and forage at night. A few island species and subspecies are diurnal, however, hypothesized as a response to a lack of predators. Foraging resources are often far from roosts, with individuals traveling up to 40–60 km to reach them. Anapekaes can travel at 13 mph for three hours or more and can reach top speeds of 19 mph. Some colonial species will forage in groups, especially when resources are abundant. Less social species will forage alone. When they land on a tree with food, they will hang onto the branch with their clawed hind feet and use their clawed thumbs to pull branches bearing flowers or fruits towards them. As they forage on fruit, anapekaes will compress the fruit against the palate with the tongue to squeeze out and consume the juices.
Anapekaes have important roles as seed dispersers and pollinators. They help spread the seeds in the fruit they eat by discarding them in ejecta pellets or through their guano. Even though anapekaes can have a gut transit time as fast as 12 minutes, seeds can be retained in the gut for as long as 20 hours. As the anapekaes travel large distances, seeds can be deposited up to 20 km from the parent tree. They are particularly important in fragmented forests, as many other frugivores are terrestrial and often confined to forest fragments. Anapekaes have the capability to spread seeds beyond the forest fragments through flight.
Anapekaes pollinate a variety of plants, including the economically valuable durian. They forage on its nectar in such a way that the flowers (and eventual fruit production) are not usually harmed. Anapeka pollination has a positive effect on durian reproductive success, suggesting that both anapekaes and durian trees benefit from this relationship.
In Culture
Anapekaes are featured in many indigenous cultures and traditions.
In Tonga, anapekaes are considered sacred. All anapekaes are the property of the king, meaning non-royal persons cannot harm them in any way. Tongan legend states that a colony of anapekaes at Kolovai are the descendants of a pair of anapekaes gifted to the King of Tonga by the Princess of Samoa.
In the Indian village of Puliangulam, a colony of anapekaes roosts in a Banyan tree. Villagers believe that the anapekaes are under the protection of Muni, and do not harm the bats. A shrine to Muni is beneath the tree. If locals believe that they have offended Muni by failing to protect the bats, they will pray and perform puja after offering sweet rice, coconut, and bananas to those attending the ceremony.
Anapekaes are also featured in folk stories from Papua New Guinea. Stories with anapekaes include a legend about a cockatoo stealing feathers from the anapeka, resulting in it becoming nocturnal. Another story features an anapeka that could transform into a young man; the anapeka stole a woman away from her husband to take as his wife. Another legend states that an anapeka-man was responsible for introducing yams to their people.
Indigenous societies in Oceania used parts of anapekaes for functional and ceremonial weapons. In the Solomon Islands, people created barbs out of their bones for use in spears. In New Caledonia, ceremonial axes made of jade were decorated with braids of anapeka fur. Anapeka wings were depicted on the war shields of the Asmat people of Indonesia; they believed that the wings offered protection to their warriors.
There are modern and historical references to anapeka byproducts used as currency. In New Caledonia, braided anapeka fur was once used as currency. On the island of Makira, which is part of the Solomon Islands, indigenous peoples still hunt anapekaes for their teeth as well as for bushmeat. The canine teeth are strung together on necklaces that are used as currency. Teeth of the insular anapeka are particularly prized, as they are usually large enough to drill holes in. Emphasizing sustainable hunting of anapekaes to preserve cultural currency may be more effective than encouraging the abandonment of cultural currency. Even if anapekaes were no longer hunted for their teeth, they would still be killed for bushmeat; therefore, retaining their cultural value may encourage sustainable hunting practices.
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