The Lesser Dawn Bat has a long, narrow muzzle and large eyes. It feeds on nectar and pollen and roosts in large colonies in caves and other sheltered places.
Its upperparts are dark greyish brown and the underparts are paler. It has a long, narrow muzzle, large eyes and a short tail not joined to the flight membrane.
In southern Thailand, researchers radio-tracked ten lesser dawn bats while durian and petai trees were flowering in a landscape of farms and trees. They recorded flower visits, movement among trees, and pollen on flowers to study how the bats fed in this agricultural mosaic.
The tracked bats made an average of seven visits per hour. In 80–86% of feeding bouts, a bat visited several trees of the same plant species. Conspecific pollen was found on 93% of visited durian stigmas and 50% of petai stigmas. The observations showed the bats carrying pollen between flowers of both crops.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In the southern Thailand study, ten lesser dawn bats visited durian and petai flowers while moving among trees in an agricultural mosaic. They averaged seven flower visits per hour, and pollen from the same plant species was found on many visited flowers. The authors identified the bat as an effective pollinator of both crops and described the role of its natural roost caves in maintaining this pollination service. The article connected the bats’ feeding movements, flowering trees, and roost sites within the surveyed landscape.