The Flying Fox is the largest bat in the world, it can be found in tropical regions of Asia, Indonesia, parts of Australia and the East African Islands. The Flying Fox is more commonly known as the Fruit Bat, but it has many names given to it down through the years by different tribes. The scientific name for this type of bat is Megachiroptera, the first fossil of this Megachiroptera was dated back to 35 million years ago. There was only one obvious difference between the fossil and today’s Megachiroptera, the difference was they use to have a tail. The use of this tail was to balance its large body as it was in flight.

In today’s world the numbers of these majestic creatures are fading fast. They are being hunted in parts of Ghana and the Marianas for human consumption, in these regions their meat is considered a delicacy which led to a booming commercial trade in 1989. It is not just the humans that are to blame for the shrinking numbers in the Flying Fox. In Australia there is a wide spread parasite that are infecting the Spectacle Flying Fox, these parasites carry paralyzing toxins, these toxins paralyze parts of the bats anatomy. As body parts fail the bat is sure to die.    

Description of the Flying Fox

There are many different sub species of the flying fox and their description depends on which region you find them. They all pretty much look the same with slight differences, such as the length of their ears or snouts, or the size of their eyes, to the size of their bodies and weight. You will know a flying fox when you see one because of is size compared to a regular sized bat, they are considerably bigger in every way. The largest of the flying fox family is the Vampire Flying fox, with a wing span of 7 feet it would be very difficult to miss one of these flying over head. Although they are huge they only weigh 1.5 – 2 kgs. Their faces resemble similarities of a red fox or a desert fox. Their colouring differs depending on the sub species of the bat. Some are jet black, some are light brown and black maybe red, some are just light brown all over to the Spectacle flying fox which has patches of either brown or black.

Behaviour of the Flying Fox 

Unlike smaller more agile bats they have great eye sight, they also have the sonar feature that smaller bats have. They only use the sonar feature during the night when in flight, because these bats are much bigger than their relatives they wouldn’t use it to the extent of a smaller bat would. A flying fox would use it to find big obstacles such as a cliff or a tree or a large mound or a building where as the smaller bats would use it to find a crack in the wall or an insect flying by. Unlike smaller bats they do not sleep in caves or abandoned buildings they sleep in trees during the day as seen from the image above. They sleep in vast numbers during the day, their sleeping patterns stretch from dawn to dusk, and they begin their hunt as the sun goes down and the air becomes cooler. It is not unusual to see these bats flying during the day lit hours, because their eyesight is so much more developed than that of a smaller bat, they can see just as good as you or I could. The sun hurts the eyes of a smaller bat, normal bats have nocturnal sight and the bright light from the sun blinds them so they stay out of the daylight.

Diet of the Flying Fox

Flying foxes diet consists of mostly fruit, these fruits are tropical fruits such as mangoes, oranges and tropical berries. Even though these animals can see during the day they feed mostly at dusk and night. It is not uncommon to see these bats eating during the day in captivity. Although they have been given the name as the fruit bat they do eat other foods such as crops and some insects and leeches. Just like us they need a stable diet of different food types they get most of their proteins from the insects they eat and they get most of their vitamins from the fruit. Feeding grounds stretch for up to 70 km they travel from one place to another in search for their best feeding grounds. They drink water by flying over the river and drinking while they glide across the surface lapping up the water. They also drink sea water to obtain salt into their diet, they consume the sea water in the same fashion as the fresh water.

As they feed they hang from the branches that the fruit hang from and they eat the fruit as it hangs from where it grows. For other food types the consumption is very different, they must head toward the ground. Flying foxes are not adapted to landing on the ground or for mobility on the ground either. They land on the ground by falling out of flight and crashing in a bundle on the earth. Smaller bats are able to snatch insects from the sky with ease by tailing their flight path, flying foxes on the other hand have to hunt for their insects in the darkness on the ground, they do this with their built in sonar feature they have. Because the flying fox is no adapted to ground movement they crawl on all fours using their sonar to locate slow moving insects such as leeches and slugs.