Actual folivory in bats: whole leaves as a formerly dismissed trophic item and a potential avenue for self-medication

What is it about?

Some bats have been observed chewing bits of leaves, extracting and swallowing only their juices, and always discarding their fiber as little fiber-balls. Thus, bats were not considered strict folivorous because they were never observed swallowing entire leaves. For decades, bats feeding on leaves was completely dismissed because their digestion would be incompatible with bats’ ability to flight. Watching animal behaviour in natural conditions can change our assumptions: we observed a common frugivorous bat consuming entire leaves. This observation initially left us perplexed, and ultimately shifted our understanding of bat behavior, adding leaves as food options, emphatically dismissed before. While feeding exclusively on leaves remains unlikely in bats, actual folivory is likely more common than previously thought. Research is needed to understand how important leaves are for bats and/or if bats could consume leaves to cure themselves when sick. Bats are now known to feed not only on insects, fruit, nectar, pollen, vertebrates and blood, but also on entire leaves.

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