Diet composition of flying foxes in district Kotli, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

The current study investigated the diet composition of Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus) in district Kotli, Azad Kashmir summer 2018 to 2019. We used the fecal analysis method to document the diet composition of flying foxes and analyzed 107 samples collected from roosting sites. We identified 8 plant species in the diet of flying fox belonging to three families of plants including Moraceae (78.72%), Rosaceae (12.80%), and Myrtaceae (11.34%). We recovered two species belonging to the family Moraceae in the diet of flying fox including Ficus carica (46.73%, n=50), Morus nigra (29.91%, n=32). Similarly, four species of family Rosaceae were consumed including Prunus armeniaca (4.67%, n=5), Eriobotrya japonica (3.74%, n=4), Pyrus pashia (2.80%, n=3) and Prunus persica (0.93%, n=1). Whereas two species of family myrtaceae including Syzygium Cumini (9.35%, n=10) Psidium guajava (1.87%, n=2) and were consumed by flying fox. Results from this study show that Indian flying fox mainly consumes Morus nigra and Ficus carica carica. More detailed studies should be conducted to investigate seasonal variation in diet composition of flying foxes, assess local perception towards bats and economic losses faced by local people as a result of flying foxes raiding on the orchids in the study area.