Contributions of bats to the local economy through durian pollination in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Durian is economically important for local livelihoods in Indonesia. Our study investigated the identity of pollinators of semi-wild durian, and subsequently estimated the economic contribution of these pollination services. We conducted pollination exclusion experiments and deployed camera traps at durian trees from October 2017 to January 2018 in an area where the local economy depends on durian production in West Sulawesi, Indonesia. Durian flowers in the experiment that were accessible to bats had significantly higher fruit set compared to flowers that were completely closed to animal visitors or those that could only be visited by insects, suggesting that bats were the primary durian pollinator. The small, highly nectarivorous cave nectar bat (Eonycteris spelaea) visited more inflorescences (n = 25) and had visits of much longer duration (X ̅ = 116.87 sec/visit) than the two species of flying foxes: Pteropus alecto (n = 7 inflorescences visited,X ̅ = 11.07 sec/visit) and Acerodon c...