Thesis (BS Biology) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, 2004

Roosting behaviors and roosting preference of flying foxes, Pteropus vampyrus were investigated in the DCWD Malagos Watershed. As many as 2,604 flying foxes were counted roosting on the two Terminalia copelandii. Behavioral units were categorized as general maintenance behavior and social behavior. The general maintenance behavior include: sleeping, grooming, locomotion, searching, stretching, urinating, defecating, flying, and fanning. Social behaviors on the other hand, include courting, copulating, and aggression. Sleeping was the most dominant occurring behavior (80.42%) on the roost. Flying foxes had several forms of sleeping positions which were probably driven by the environmental conditions like weather, temperature and sunflecks. Other general maintenance behaviors were also quantified as follows: grooming (9.88%), locomotion (1.13%), searching (0.29%), stretching (0.33%), urinating (0.40%), defecating (0.43%), flying (2.64%) and fanning (2.25%). The social behaviors showed percent occurrences as: aggression (1.22%), courting (0.87%), and copulating (0.14%). The daytime roosting of flying foxes was mainly for the purpose of resting and a little for social interaction on their roost trees. Their primary roost site is far from human habitation in Malagos. Favored roost trees were T. copelandii and Enduspermum peltatum both have low canopy cover, and horizontal branching patterns and fissured barks. Flying foxes did not roost on other big trees with high canopy cover and with ascending branching patterns. Spat out seeds by the flying foxes of the fruits of T. copelandii, successfully germinated in the roosting site. Large amount of fecal matter were observed under their roost which improved the fertility of the soil