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| Black-capped fruit bat | |
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Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Pteropodidae |
| Subfamily: | Cynopterinae |
| Genus: | Chironax K. Andersen, 1912 |
| Species: | C. melanocephalus |
| Binomial name | |
| Chironax melanocephalus (Temminck, 1825) | |
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| Black-capped fruit bat range | |
Theblack-capped fruit bat (Chironax melanocephalus) is a species ofmegabat in themonotypic genusChironax.
Seven specimens ofC. melanocephalus were collected from the lowlandforest at Kubah and Lambir, and beachforest atSamunsam,Sarawak,Borneo. The specimen that was mist-netted in Kubah National Park on 12 July 1995 was a first record for Sarawak (Abdullah et al. 1997). According to Payne et al. (1985) the distribution ofC. melanocephalus inBorneo is only known from Sepilok in Sabah and Temburong inBrunei. Therange includesThailand, PeninsularMalaysia,Sumatra,Java andSulawesi (Payne et al. 1985).
Thehabitat where it was caught was lowland mixeddipterocarp forest. Twospecimens were caught in the understory of primary dipterocarp forest inKubah National Park; one from the understory of mixed beach forest habitat inSamunsam Wildlife Sanctuary; and four from the canopy (between 15 and 30 m) of the primary dipterocarp forest inLambir Hills National Park. These sites are new distributional records for C. melanocephalus in Sarawak and have extended the range of the species to the western part of Borneo. The bat normally roosts in small groups in tree ferns and in shallow caves (Payne et al. 1985).
AllC. melanocephalus caught were adults, three males and four females. Two were in non-reproductive condition and others were in various reproductive stages. A female (MTA96041) caught on 21 May 1996 from Kubah was pregnant. In November 1996, two females caught in Lambir Hills National Park were in post-lactating condition, suggesting recent detachment or loss of juveniles. A male caught at the same site was observed to have enlarged testes. Medway (1978) recorded pregnant females in February and April in the upland area ofCameron highlands inPeninsular Malaysia.
Issue No. 6. 80: 221—234.
Abundance and Conservation of Chiropterans in Kayan Mentarang National Park, EastKalimantan, Indonesia. Sarawak Museum Journal 79: 251-265.
