Dinner Date: Opposite-Sex Pairs of Fruit Bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) Forage More than Same-Sex Pairs

Social animals have unique foraging behaviors that consider not only the needs of the individual, but also the needs of the group. When social animals forage together, there is a greater sense of perceived safety, leading to less vigilance and more foraging. Within these groups, there are consistent differences in foraging across sexes due to inherent differences in behavior and nutritional demands. We hypothesize that social foraging efficiency may be affected by social context, especially by the sex of the individual bats. We used giving-up densities and video data to observe social and asocial foraging in the Egyptian fruit bat (<i>Rousettus aegyptiacus</i>) to gain insight into the effect of social context and pairing on foraging. We found that females harvested less food despite spending the same amount of time foraging as males. We found an effect of social context on foraging measures: male-female pairs harvested more than same-sex pairs. Foraging behavior is influenced not only by the sex but also by the identity of the foraging companion. Our study suggests that animals that live in larger groups may require the presence of more individuals while foraging to gain significant perceived safety benefits. It also ascertains the importance of sex in the social and solitary foraging of <i>Rousettus aegyptiacus</i> bats.