For the first time , researchers have commemorate African monkeys eating bat . And both are known to harbor diseases that can spread to people . These so - calledzoonotic diseasesinclude Ebola computer virus disease , and primates can become septic when they eat fruits contaminate by bat saliva or faeces . But according to these young findings , published inEcoHealththis month , there ’s an alternating – and more direct – path of disease contagion .
Cercopithecusmonkeys are found in timber throughout Africa , and they prefer to eat up fruit . But as opportunist omnivores , they ’ve also been known to eat leaves , hemipteron , and even lounge lizard , snakes , birds , mice , and flight squirrels . These high priest also apportion habitat and food resources with at-bat , but their predator - quarry interactions have been ill documented and thought to be rare – until now .
account ofCercopithecusmonkeys preying on bats in Tanzania ’s Gombe National Park and Kenya ’s Kakamega Forest date back to 1979 . Using cameras and telecasting recorders , Florida Atlantic University ’s Elizabeth Tapanes and colleagues document monkey depredation on bat in Gombe and Kakamega between April of 2007 and October of 2014 .
In that time , the team witness 13 bat predation issue . The monkeys were successful 11 of those times . Individual monkeys spent between 10 and 66 minutes consume a undivided bat ( depending on size of it ) , and sometimes they ’d eat the entire carcase , bones and all . Bats roosting in tree diagram during the day were particularly vulnerable to being snatched up since they were either hibernating or at rest . And while feeding on chiropteran , the scalawag would exhibit fast-growing behaviour , like growling .
In the two unsuccessful case , several imp quest after just one bat . " The persistence of these scalawag to capture their target point that cricket bat are desirable items in their food repertoire , " study co - author Kate Detwiler of Florida Atlantic University explain in astatement .
All of the hunting and feeding events go on in or near the edge of a forest or a human - modified habitat ( like a orchard ) . It ’s possible that deforestation and other sorts of man - made home ground changes have an effect on bat depredation .
Observations of African rascal treat and eating bats suggest that lineal predation may be an important pathway of disease transmission . While cases of human infection mostly occurred through contact with infect primates , bats are also a reservoir for Ebola virus .
Image in the text : Felix Angwella / Gombe Hybrid Monkey Project
