Tropical bats - biodiversity in action

Christian Ziegler

National Geographic Magazine

This fruit-eating bat is taking off after it grabbed and ripped off a ripe fig fruit from a branch. The bat will now fly to a feeding roost where it will eat the fig by squeezing all sugary liquid out of it. The dry flesh and all the seeds will be dropped to the ground - and maybe a new fig will sprout there one day. Fruit eating bats play an important role as seed dispersers in most tropical forests around the world. (Taken in large flight cage of the research teeam)

Christian Ziegler, "Tropical bats - biodiversity in action," in POYi Archive, Item #40421, http://archive.poy.org/index.php/items/show/40421 (accessed June 7, 2025).