Female Egyptian fruit bats are finicky lovers , but their desire for a mate may be swayed by his ability to offer food , harmonize to a new bailiwick published inCurrent Biology . researcher in Israel have observed captive Egyptian fruit chiropteran females literally consume food from the mouth of willing male person .
" We base a strong human relationship between producer - moocher feeding interactions and replication , " said study author Yossi Yovel of Tel - Aviv University in astatement . " Namely , females tidal bore pups of the males they often shnorr food from . "
At first , the squad says they were confused by the bats ’ behavior : Why would a male volitionally give up his food ? To answer , they abide by three colony over the course of a year and notice that female would eat from the lip of males for calendar week at a prison term as a sort of bat dinner date . After some clock time , female person would choose which of the many feeding male person she wanted to pair with and ultimately produce offspring with him . However , being a “ very consistent food collector ” did not charm the male bat ’s reproductive success . moreover , there was almost no overlap between males preferred by each female – female chose their partner ground on some variety of individual preference that changed from year to year .
In their study , the source listed off a number of reason for sharing nutrient , from contributing to the overall physical fitness of the dependency to not being willing to risk defend a female person over food for fear of wound . Mostly though , the male were credibly just attempt to get gender .
“ We hypothesize that the observed sexual intercourse between food for thought scrounging and pairing is a form of symbiosis exhibited in delayed reciprocality : scrounging food from a successful manlike forager diminishes the costs of foraging and is compensated , if reproducible over time , by repay the male with mating opportunities , ” wrote the author , citing support for afood - for - sexhypothesis . “ In addition to lineal aliment , food sharing might contribute to reducing predation risk . ”
Other species have displayed interchangeable food for thought - for - sexual practice relationships . Vampire bats , for illustration , share blood to create reciprocality in settlement members . Chimpanzees also take shape societal bail when share food .
It ’s unclear whether Egyptian yield bats exhibit standardised trait in the wilderness , but their relatively long lifespan and social demeanor make them an idealistic candidate for succeeding studies .
