Effect of light intensity on food detection in captive great fruit-eating bats, Artibeus lituratus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

• We tested the abilities of A. lituratus to detect food under different light levels.
• A. lituratus relied on visual cues when foraging under the full moon luminosity.
• When vision was impaired, bats used non-visual cues to detect food.
• A. lituratus showed behavioral inhibition under the twilight luminosity.
• We found no evidence of lunar phobia in captive A. lituratus.

Bats are known for their well-developed echolocation. However, several experiments focused on the bat visual system have shown evidence of the importance of visual cues under specific luminosity for different aspects of bat biology, including foraging behavior. This study examined the foraging abilities of five female great fruit-eating bats, Artibeus lituratus, under different light intensities. Animals were given a series of tasks to test for discrimination between a food target against an inedible background, under light levels similar to the twilight illumination (18 lx), the full moon (2 lx) and complete darkness (0 lx). We found that the bats required a longer time frame to detect targets under a light intensity similar to twilight, possibly due to inhibitory effects present under a more intense light level. Additionally, bats were more efficient at detecting and capturing targets under light conditions similar to the luminosity of a full moon, suggesting that visual cues were important for target discrimination. These results demonstrate that light intensity affects foraging behavior and enables the use of visual cues for food detection in frugivorous bats.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Neotropical Behaviour.