PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Note An observation of homosexual fellatio in the Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius (Temminck, 1825) (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) K.S. Gopi Sundar & Swat Kitur 26 May 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 8 | Pages: 15945–15946 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5893.12.8.15945-15946 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2020 | 12(8): 15945–15946 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5893.12.8.15945-15946 #5893 | Received 23 March 2020 | Final received 29 April 2020 | Finally accepted 06 May 2020 N o t An observaton of homosexual fellato in the Indian Flying Fox e Pteropus medius (Temminck, 1825) (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) K.S. Gopi Sundar 1 & Swat Kitur 2 1,2 Nature Conservaton Foundaton, 1311, “Amritha”, 12th A Main, Vijaynagar, 1st Stage, Mysore 570017, Karnataka, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected] Apart from a small number of primate species, bats On 17 March 2020, we visited Nagawli lake beside appear to be unique in the animal world in practsing oral the village of Nagawli in Chitaurgarh District of southern sex. These acts include fellato (Tan et al. 2009; Sugita Rajasthan. A roostng colony of Indian Flying Foxes used 2016) and cunnilingus (Maruthupandian & Marimuthu large mango trees that bordered the lake and numbered ~ 2013) with observatons suggestng that such behaviours 300 individuals. One pair of bats roosted away from other are usually carried out between heterosexual pairs to bats and atracted our atenton by their regular joustng. help improve fertlizaton. In additon to oral sex, bats This included beatng each other with their patagium, are unusual in engaging in homosexual acts, the utlity of wrestling with the patagium wrapped around each other, which appear to have generated considerable discussion and snapping at each other’s faces. Between sessions of with no understanding yet as to why bats might engage joustng, one male bat performed repeated acts of fellato in such sexual behaviour (Kunz & Hosken 2009). on the second bat (recipient). This included licking the Homosexual behaviour included mountng and joustng, recipient on the scrotum (Image 1a), licking the shaf and and observatons indicate that genital licking was limited tp of the penis (Image 1b), and twice taking the penis to pairs of subordinate males (Riccucci 2011). Homosexual into his mouth between episodes of licking the tp (Image fellato has been observed in bats but appears to be rare 1c). Both bats also licked their own penises intermitently and has been observed only in one species, the Bonin (Image 1d), and the recipient never performed fellato Flying Fox Pteropus pselaphon (Sugita 2016). In Indian on the other male bat. The bat performing the fellato bats, oral sex has been observed in heterosexual pairs appeared to get aroused startng with a faccid penis at (Maruthupandian & Marimuthu 2013), and homosexual the beginning of the interacton (Image 1a) and gained a behaviour with males mountng other males has been prominent erecton within a few seconds (Image 1d). The observed in captvity (see references in Riccucci 2011). recipient had an erect penis when interactons began (not Sexual behaviours are poorly documented in Indian bats photographed) and a faccid penis afer fellato began owing to the difculty of observing bats that roost in dark (Image 1), however, the recipient did not do anything spaces making direct observatons challenging. In this to stop the fellato, instead it kept closing its eyes briefy note, we describe an observaton of homosexual fellato (Image 1b). The two bats also groomed themselves and in the Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius (formerly P. each other during the interacton that lasted about three giganteus). minutes (0959 to 1002 h). Observatons were disturbed Editor: Paul Racey, University of Exeter, UK. Date of publicaton: 26 May 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Sundar, K.S.G. & S. Kitur (2020). An observaton of homosexual fellato in the Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius (Temminck, 1825) (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Pteropodidae). Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(8): 15945–15946. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5893.12.8.15945-15946 Copyright: © Sundar & Kitur 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We thank Dr. Satsh Sharma and Mr. Vinay Dave for invitng us to explore Nagawli Lake with them. We also thank an anonymous reviewer for a very rapid turnaround and thoughtul suggestons. 15945 J TT Homosexual fellato in Indian Flying Fox Sundar & Kitur a b c dd Image 1. Series of photographs showing homosexual fellato performed by a male Indian Flying Fox in Chitaurgarh District, Rajasthan, India. © K.S. Gopi Sundar. by human actvity near the tree that resulted in all the and will be crucial in enhancing the growing number of bats taking fight. suspicions regarding bat socio-biology. Homosexual fellato has not previously been described in the Indian Flying Fox though a number of References published studies are available on the copulatory and Koilraj, B., G. Agoramoorthy & G. Marimuthu (2001). Copulatory other sexual behaviours of this species (Koilraj et al. 2001; behaviour of Indian fying Fox Pteropus giganteus. Current Science 80: Maruthupandian & Marimuthu 2013; Kumar et al. 2017). 15–16. Kumar, R., D.N. Prasad & V. Elangovan (2017). Diurnal reproductve Male-male fellato has been observed and described in behaviour of Indian fying fox Pteropus giganteus. The Asian Journal the closely related Bonin Flying Fox, where males licked of Animal Science 12(2): 134–137. scrota and the erect penis of other males in the colony Kunz, T.H. & D.J. Hosken (2009). Male lactaton: why, why not and is it care? Trends in Ecology and Evoluton 24(2): 80–85. htps://doi. (Sugita 2016). Our observaton had a few novel features org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.09.009 in that only one of the bats performed the fellato and Maruthupandian, J. & G. Marimuthu (2013). Cunnilingus apparently also gained an erecton during the act. Taking the penis increases duraton of copulaton in the Indian Flying Fox, Pteropus giganteus. PLOS ONE 2013 8(3): e59743. htps://doi.org/10.1371/ into the mouth was also exceedingly unusual and has journal.pone.0059743 probably not been observed before in bats. Female-male Riccucci, M. (2011). Same-sex sexual behaviour in bats. Hystrix the Italian fellato appears to be correlated to copulaton length Journal of Mammology 22(1): 139–147. htps://doi.org/10.4404/ hystrix-22.1-4697 signifying a clear functon (Tan et al. 2009). Homosexual Sugita, N. (2016). Homosexual fellato: erect penis licking between fellato, on the other hand, is rare and is suspected to help male Bonin Flying Foxes Pteropus pselaphon. PLOS ONE 2016 11(11): males resolve aggressive relatonships within colonies e0166024. htps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166024 Tan, M., G. Jones, G. Zhu, J. Ye, T. Hong, S. Zhou, S. Zhang & L. Zhang (Sugita 2016). We echo past assertons that many more (2009). Fellato by fruit bats prolongs copulaton tme. PLOS ONE 2009 behavioural studies are needed on Indian and other bats 4(1): e7595. htps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007595 Threatened Taxa 15946 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2020 | 12(8): 15945–15946 PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. OPEN ACCESS All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) May 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 8 | Pages: 15767–15966 Date of Publicaton: 26 May 2020 (Online & Print) www.threatenedtaxa.org DOI: 10.11609/jot.2020.12.8.15767-15966 Communicatons Avifaunal diversity of Tilyar Lake, Rohtak, Haryana, India – Jagjeet Singh, Sandeep Antl, Vivek Goyal & Vinay Malik, Pp. 15909–15915 Mammalian fauna in an urban infuenced zone of Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha, India Life-history traits and courtship behaviour of four poorly known endemic – Subrat Debata & Kedar Kumar Swain, Pp.