Table 2.
Characteristics of the trees roosted by flying foxes
| Group | Colony | Botanic description |
|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | 8 and 12 | Bamboo is generally found interspersed in many other types of forest and as a pioneer species. It is a fast growing species that easily colonizes disturbed forest sites, both natural and man-made. As such, and due to the logging excesses in Thailand in the past, many bamboo forests have become established in man-made disturbed sites [72]. |
| Bamboo | ||
| Group 2 | 17,18, 19, and 21 | Trees in mangrove forest are evergreen species with a very dense forest floor. The roots of the trees are both for anchoring it in the soil and for breathing. This type of forest is found close to the seat of the mouth of major rivers where the sea washes ashore. The important tree species include the Kongklang (Rhizophora spp.), Prasak. The plants grow on the forest floor include the various types of sea grasses [73,74]. |
| Mangrove forest | ||
| Group 3 | 2,5, and 11 | The rubber (Dipterocarpus alatus) is a tropical forest tree, of dense evergreen or mixed dense forests, common in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. It is a medium-sized to fairly large tree of up to 40 m tall (sometimes more), bole tall, straight, cylindrical, branchless up to 20 m, up to 150 cm in diameter. Leaves narrowly ovate to ovate to elliptical-oblong, 9–25 cm x 3.5-15 cm, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute or shortly indistinctly acuminate [75]. |
| Rubber | ||
| Group 4 | 1,3,4,6,7,9,10,13,14, 15,16, 20 and 22 | The various type of trees (mostly are in the Buddhist temple) composed of rubber (Dipterocarpus spp), ficus tree (Ficus spp), bohhi tree (Ficus religiosa L.), bengal almond (Terminalia catappa L.), rain tree (Samanea saman), neem plant (Azadirachta indica), tamarind (Tamarindus indica Linn), sal tree (Shorea robusta Roxb.), bamboo (Bambusa sp.), coconut (Cocos nucifera Linn.), and others [75]. Most of trees are a medium-sized to fairly large tree of up to 40 m tall, which mostly found in the tropical evergreen forest which is distributed in all areas of Thailand. They are concentrated in pockets of high moisture such as valleys and close to water sources such as rivers, streams and mountains. A common characteristic of tropical evergreen forest is the appearance of a lush green vegetation all year round. |
| Various trees |
Characteristics of bat roosting trees of 22 flying fox colonies in the central plain of Thailand grouped by type of trees.