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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 46(3)

Going it alone: observations of solitary roosting in two Australian flying-foxes (Pteropus alecto and P. poliocephalus)

Matthew Mo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2099-6020 *
* Correspondence to: matthew.sk.mo@gmail.com

Handling Editor: Martin Denny

Australian Mammalogy 46, AM24016 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM24016
Submitted: 27 April 2024  Accepted: 5 August 2024  Published: 27 August 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society.

Abstract

Unlike some flying-fox species that exhibit solitary roosting, all flying-fox species of the Australian mainland are strongly colonial, though some extent of solitary roosting in these species is anecdotally known. This note reports on five accounts of solitary roosting in black flying-foxes (Pteropus alecto) and grey-headed flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus), herein referred to as 'singletons'. These accounts are potentially the first published detailed observations of singletons in Australian flying-foxes outside of visible periods of food shortages. In particular, one account involved solitary roosting recorded over multiple days. The frequency and extent of singletons in Australian flying-foxes remain completely unknown. In terms of deriving population sizes in these species from counts at communal roosts, these individuals represent an addition to those estimates.

Keywords: bats, black flying-fox, Chiroptera, grey-headed flying-fox, Old World fruit bats, Pteropodidae, Pteropus, roosting ecology, singletons.

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