Interactions!
Plant Interactions:
Colugos are herbivores and feed mostly on
leaves, shoots, fruits, flowers, and seeds. They like to eat the
flowers of fruits like the
pineapple,
mango, and
starfruit. In exchange for snacking on trees the colugos help
aid in seed dispersal and pollination. They also lick trees to
acquire water, salt, and nutrients.
Figure 1: Colugo licking tree branch. Image by Nick Barbutt.
Human Interactions:
There are very few known predators of the
colugos, one being humans. Colugos are sometimes hunted for their
meat and fur in western Java, they are hunted mainly for tradition
because of their lack of meat and fur (Boeadi and Steinmetz, 2008).
To hide from predation they use cryptic coloration, check out the
adaptation page for more information.
Deforestation caused by humans
destroys the habitat of the Galeopterus variegatus. (Boeadi and
Steinmetz, 2008). Although they face the threat of losing their
habitat their decline in population is minimal and they are one the
least concerned list of extant organisms by the
IUNC. Click here to
learn more about their habitat.
Figure 2.
Deforested Malaysia. Image by Loke Seng Hon
Other animal interactions:
The Galeopterus variegatus compete with
the Callosciurus notatus to gather resouces in the forests (Boeadi
and Steinmetz, 2008). Another known predator to the colugos are
eagles that live in southeastern Asia, which are closely related to
our local
bald eagles.
Now let's go check out some interesting facts about the Galeopterus variegatus!