Teen who died of Nipah in Kerala had local fruit from neighbourhood where fruit bats thrive

Teen who died of Nipah in Kerala had local fruit from neighbourhood where fruit bats thrive

Sub: Env

Sec: Species in news

Context: A day after a 14-year-old boy in Malappuram succumbed to the Nipah virus, Kerala health department Monday confirmed that he had consumed hog plum fruit from his neighbourhood, where the presence of fruit bats, known as reservoir of the zoonotic virus, was confirmed.

Flying fox bats:

• Pteropus (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world.
• They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names.
• They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, East Africa, and some oceanic islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
• Flying foxes eat fruit and other plant matter, and occasionally consume insects as well.
• They locate resources with their keen sense of smell. Most, but not all, are nocturnal. They navigate with keen eyesight, as they cannot echolocate.
• There are at least 60 extant species in the genus.
• They are generally considered a vermin as they raid orchards.
• It had a similar official status under the Schedule V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 until it was put on the Schedule II list, entailing a higher degree of protection.
• Ecological role:
  • It is a keystone species.
    • A keystone species is one that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance, impacting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of other species in an ecological community.
  • It causes seed dispersals of many plants in tropical systems.
  • Vigilance behaviour.
  • Being external roosters, the flying fox is exposed to predators and disturbances apart from environmental indicators such as heat and light.
• Threats:
  • The biggest threat to the flying fox is from humans.
  • Hunting for meat and medicine and probable threats like the felling of roost trees have contributed to the dramatic decrease in the population of the species.