Flying fox facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Flying fox Temporal range: Holocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Gray-headed flying fox
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Family:	Pteropodidae
Genus:	Pteropus Brisson, 1762
Type species
Vespertilio vampyrus niger Kerr, 1792
Worldwide distribution of flying foxes

Pteropus is a group of very large bats. They are often called fruit bats or flying foxes. These bats are some of the biggest in the world.

You can find them in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, East Africa, and on some islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. There are at least 60 different kinds of flying foxes alive today.

Flying foxes mainly eat fruit and other plant parts. Sometimes, they also eat insects. They find their food using their excellent sense of smell. Most flying foxes are active at night. They use their sharp eyesight to get around, as they cannot use sound to navigate like some other bats.

These bats live a long time but have few babies. Females usually have only one baby each year. This slow life cycle makes them easily harmed by things like too much hunting or natural disasters. Sadly, six types of flying foxes have become extinct in recent times due to overhunting. People sometimes hunt them because they think flying foxes damage crops.

However, flying foxes are very helpful to nature. They spread seeds, helping new forests grow. They also pollinate plants, which means they help plants make new seeds and fruits.

Like other bats, flying foxes can carry diseases that can affect humans. Some rare but serious diseases, like Australian bat lyssavirus (which is like rabies) and Hendra virus, come from them. Another virus, Nipah virus, also comes from flying foxes and has affected more people. Flying foxes are also important in many cultures. People use them in traditional art, stories, and even as money in the past. Some cultures still use their teeth as currency today.

What are Flying Foxes?

Naming and History

The name Pteropus was given to these bats by a French scientist named Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1762. The word "Pteropus" comes from ancient Greek words meaning "wing" and "foot." This name describes how their wings look like feet. People have called them "flying foxes" since at least 1759 because their heads look a bit like small foxes.

The most well-known species in this group is the Mauritian flying fox, also known as Pteropus niger.

Types of Flying Foxes

Scientists use special diagrams called cladograms to show how different species are related. This diagram below shows how different kinds of Pteropus bats are connected based on their genes.

How Flying Foxes Look

Body Features

Flying fox in flight

Flying foxes come in many sizes. They can weigh from about 120 grams (like a small apple) to 1.6 kilograms (like a large pineapple). Males are usually bigger than females.

The large flying fox has the widest wingspan of any bat, up to 1.5 meters (about 5 feet). It can weigh up to 1.1 kilograms (about 2.4 pounds). Other species, like the Indian flying fox, can be even heavier.

Most flying foxes are smaller, weighing less than 600 grams (about 1.3 pounds). Some small species, like the dwarf flying fox, weigh less than 170 grams (about 6 ounces).

They have long, soft fur. Many species have a "mantle" of different colored fur on their head and shoulders. Flying foxes do not have tails. Their heads look like small foxes, with small ears and large eyes. Females have one pair of nipples on their chest. Their ears are long and pointy. They have sharp, curved claws on their toes. Unlike smaller bats, flying foxes have a claw on their index finger as well as their thumb.

Skull and Teeth

Skull of the black-eared flying fox

A flying fox's skull has 24 bones. It has a large braincase. Like all mammals, they have three tiny bones in their middle ear that help them hear. Young flying foxes have short snouts that grow longer as they get older.

Baby flying foxes are born with some milk teeth. By about 9 days old, all their milk teeth have appeared. By about 4.6 months old, all these milk teeth fall out and are replaced by permanent teeth. Adult flying foxes have 34 teeth in total. Their molars (back teeth) are generally smooth.

Internal Systems

Flying foxes have large hearts that beat very fast, from 100 to 400 times per minute when resting.

Their digestive system is simple. Food can pass through them in as little as 12 minutes. They do not have a cecum or an appendix.

Intelligence and Senses

Flying foxes have large brains compared to their body size, similar to domestic dogs. They are quite smart and can remember things for a long time. They travel vast distances but can always find their favorite food spots and resting places. They can also be trained to do tasks, like pulling a lever for juice. One study showed they remembered this task even 3.5 years later.

Smell

The prominent eyes of the spectacled flying fox

Flying foxes rely a lot on their sense of smell. They have large parts of their brain dedicated to processing scents. They use smell to find food, for mothers to find their babies, and for mates to find each other. Males have special glands on their shoulders that produce scents. They use these scents to mark their territory, especially during mating season.

Sight

Flying foxes do not use echolocation (like sonar) to navigate. Instead, they depend on their eyesight. Their eyes are quite large and face forward, giving them binocular vision (seeing with both eyes at once).

Like most mammals, they see in two main colors (dichromatic vision). They have cells in their eyes that detect blue light and green light. They have many more cells for seeing in low light than for seeing color. This helps them see well in dim conditions.

Life of a Flying Fox

Reproduction and Life Cycle

Female spectacled flying fox with pup

Many flying fox species mate with several partners. Females usually have only one baby at a time, called a pup. Twins are rare but do happen. Pups are born small and with little fur, so they need their mothers' care. They weigh about 12% of their mother's weight at birth.

Pups cling to their mothers' bellies using their thumb claws and teeth. Mothers carry their pups for the first few weeks. Later, mothers might leave their pups at the roost while they go find food at night. Male flying foxes do not help raise the pups.

Pups start to fly at about 3 months old. They may not stop drinking milk until they are 4 to 6 months old. Pups might stay with their mothers until they are one year old. Flying foxes become old enough to have their own babies at 1.5 to 2 years old. Females can have up to two litters a year, but one is more common. Most flying foxes have babies in the spring. Females can keep having babies for at least 12 or 13 years.

Flying foxes live a long time for their size. In the wild, they likely live about 15 years on average. However, if they face many dangers, their lifespan can be as short as 7 years. In zoos, they can live for about 20 to 28 years. The oldest known flying fox, named Statler, lived to be 34 years old in a sanctuary.

Social Life

A roosting colony of Indian flying foxes

Most flying fox species live in large groups called colonies or "camps." These colonies can be very big. The large flying fox forms groups of up to 15,000 bats. The little red flying fox can form colonies with up to 100,000 individuals! A few species, however, live alone.

The size of a colony changes throughout the year. For example, the grey-headed flying fox forms groups with one male and up to six females during breeding season. These groups break up after the season. In other species, groups might form based on age and sex, or even break up completely in the summer.

Diet and Foraging

Flying foxes eat a lot, consuming 25–35% of their body weight every day. They eat many different things to get their nutrients. Their diet includes fruits, flowers, nectar, and leaves. Sometimes, they also eat insects like cicadas.

In Australia, they love the flowers and pollen from eucalyptus trees. They also eat many kinds of farm crops, which can cause problems with farmers. Crops they eat include pineapple, mango, banana, avocado, and grapes.

In zoos, flying foxes are usually fed hard fruits like pears and apples. Bananas and other high-fiber fruits are given only sometimes. They also get protein supplements and other vitamins.

Most flying fox species are active at night and search for food then. A few island species are active during the day, possibly because they have no predators there. They often travel far, up to 40-60 kilometers (25-37 miles), to find food. They can fly at about 6 meters per second (13 mph) for hours. Some groups of flying foxes forage together, especially when there is plenty of food. Less social species hunt alone.

When they land on a tree, they hang by their back feet. They use their clawed thumbs to pull branches closer to eat flowers or fruit. When eating fruit, they squeeze the juice out with their tongue and then spit out the rest in "ejecta pellets."

Role in Nature

Flying foxes are very important for spreading seeds and pollinating plants. They help spread seeds from the fruits they eat by spitting them out or through their droppings. For example, fig seeds grow better if they have passed through a flying fox's gut. This is important for new forests. Even though food passes quickly through them, seeds can stay inside for up to 20 hours. Since flying foxes fly long distances, they can drop seeds up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from the parent tree. They are especially helpful in forests that are broken up, as they can fly between forest parts where other animals cannot.

Flying foxes also pollinate many plants, including the valuable durian fruit. They drink nectar from durian flowers without harming them. This helps the durian trees produce more fruit, showing that both the bats and the trees benefit from each other.

Protecting Flying Foxes

Conservation Status

IUCN status of Pteropus species

Out of 62 flying fox species, many are in danger. As of 2018, 3 species are critically endangered, meaning they are at very high risk of extinction. Another 7 are endangered, and 20 are vulnerable. This means over half of all flying fox species are threatened today.

Four species are already extinct: the dusky flying fox, the large Palau flying fox, the small Mauritian flying fox, and the Guam flying fox. Six species are believed to have gone extinct between 1864 and 2014, mostly due to hunting, cutting down forests, and new animals eating them.

Legal Protection

All Pteropus species are listed under CITES (a global agreement to protect wildlife), which controls their international trade. Some species have even stricter protections.

In countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, flying foxes are fully protected by law. It is illegal to harm them. However, illegal hunting still happens in some places.

In Australia, Japan, and the United States, some flying fox species are protected by national laws, while others are not. For example, in Australia, the grey-headed and spectacled flying foxes are considered "vulnerable." Farmers can sometimes get permits to kill them if they are damaging crops.

In Japan, some flying foxes, like the Bonin flying fox, are "Natural Monuments," meaning it's illegal to catch or disturb them without special permission. They also cannot be hunted.

The United States protects several flying fox species, even though they don't live there. The Rodrigues flying fox and Guam flying fox are listed as endangered.

However, in countries like India and Pakistan, flying foxes have no legal protection. In India, they are even called "vermin."

Laws can also vary within a country. In Malaysia, you can hunt flying foxes with a permit, but in Sarawak, all bats are protected.

Why Flying Foxes are Declining

Human Causes

Abandoned grey-headed flying fox pups after a cyclone

Flying fox populations are shrinking or disappearing because of human activities and natural events. Their populations are very sensitive because females usually have only one baby per year. If more than 22% of a population dies each year, it will steadily decline.

New animals introduced by humans, like the brown tree snake, can harm populations. This snake ate so many baby Mariana fruit bats on Guam that almost no new bats survived.

Many flying fox species are overhunted. While local people have always eaten them, growing human populations and better weapons have led to fewer bats. Overhunting is thought to be the main reason for the extinction of the small Mauritian flying fox and the Guam flying fox.

Flying foxes are also killed because farmers see them as pests. They also get caught accidentally in nets used to protect fruit.

Climate change also causes deaths. Extreme heat waves in Australia have killed over 30,000 Australian flying foxes between 1994 and 2008. Young bats and females are most affected, which makes it harder for populations to recover. Rising sea levels also threaten some species that live on low islands.

Natural Causes

Because many species live on only one island, they are vulnerable to random events like typhoons. A typhoon in 1979 cut the Rodrigues flying fox population in half. Typhoons also cause indirect deaths. They strip leaves from trees, making bats easier to hunt. Food becomes scarce, forcing bats to take risks, like eating fallen fruit on the ground where they can be attacked by cats, dogs, and pigs.

Flying foxes can also be threatened by diseases like tick paralysis, which affects the spectacled flying fox.

Breeding in Zoos

A Rodrigues flying fox flying at the Zürich Zoologischer Garten

Several endangered flying fox species are bred in zoos to help increase their numbers. For example, critically endangered Livingstone's fruit bats were brought from the wild to start a breeding program in 1995. This program has been successful, with 71 bats in captivity by 2017. Zoos have had to help these bats stay healthy, making sure they get enough exercise to avoid being overweight.

The endangered Rodrigues flying fox has been very successfully bred in captivity. By 1979, only 70–100 were left in the wild. A breeding program started in 1976 with 25 bats. By 2016, there were 180 in zoos in the United States alone. Worldwide, 46 zoos are part of this program.

Flying Foxes and People

As Food

An Indonesian dish made with Paniki (flying fox meat)

Many flying fox species are hunted for their meat, called "bushmeat." This hunting is often not sustainable, meaning too many bats are killed, leading to big drops in their numbers or even local extinction. Flying foxes are hunted for food in parts of Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania. This is common in places where food is scarce and environmental laws are not strictly followed.

However, in some cultures, eating flying fox meat is forbidden. In Namoluk, people find the idea of eating flying foxes disgusting. In Muslim-majority areas, flying foxes are rarely eaten due to religious dietary rules.

North Sulawesi, Indonesia, has a high demand for flying fox meat. Even though Indonesia is mostly Muslim, North Sulawesi is mostly Christian, so many people there do not follow halal rules. In Manado, many people eat flying fox meat at least once a month, and even more often around holidays. Locals believe that "unique meat" from wild animals makes special occasions more exciting.

To make the hunting more sustainable, some suggest setting limits on how many bats can be caught. They also suggest encouraging hunters to release females and young bats. Providing other ways for people to earn money instead of selling bat meat could also help.

In Guam, eating the Mariana fruit bat can expose people to a harmful substance called BMAA. This substance might lead to brain diseases later in life. Flying foxes get BMAA from eating cycad fruits.

In Medicine

Flying foxes are also killed for use in traditional medicine. For example, some believe that the fat of the Indian flying fox can treat rheumatism (joint pain). Tribes in India eat cooked Indian flying fox meat to treat asthma and chest pain. In Bangladesh, some healers use hair from Indian flying foxes to treat fevers.

Spreading Diseases

Date palm sap collection, a primary exposure route for Nipah virus

Known henipavirus outbreaks as of 2014

Flying foxes carry several viruses, some of which can spread to humans. They can transmit lyssaviruses, which cause rabies. They can also transmit other diseases like Menangle virus and Nelson Bay virus, but these rarely affect humans. While other bat species are linked to diseases like SARS and Ebola, flying foxes are not.

As Pests

Netting used to protect crops from wildlife such as flying foxes

Flying foxes are often seen as pests because they damage fruit crops in orchards. They are known to damage almonds, guavas, mangoes, lychees, and stone fruits. However, damage from other animals is sometimes wrongly blamed on flying foxes. It can be hard to measure the actual economic damage they cause.

To stop fruit damage, farmers might legally or illegally kill flying foxes. In the 1800s, the Australian government even paid rewards to kill them.

Farmers can use nets to cover fruit trees. Netting is very effective but can be expensive. Other methods include using scare guns, chemicals, or lights at night. Planting "decoy crops" like Singapore cherry trees near orchards can also work, as flying foxes prefer these fruits over many others.

Large groups of flying foxes can also bother people. In Batemans Bay, Australia, locals complain that bat noises in the morning keep them from sleeping. Flying foxes can also fly into power lines, causing power outages. Their droppings and smell can also be unpleasant. The presence of large bat colonies can even lower property values nearby.

In Culture

A flying fox depicted in Aboriginal art

Ceremonial axe decorated with flying fox fur braid in New Caledonia

Flying fox braided fur cord used as currency in the Loyalty Islands

Flying foxes appear in many traditional cultures and stories.

An Aboriginal story from New South Wales tells of an impatient flying fox who wanted to be a bird and was hung upside down. Flying foxes also appear in ancient Aboriginal cave art.

In Tonga, flying foxes are considered sacred. All flying foxes belong to the king, and no one else can harm them. A Tongan legend says that a colony of flying foxes at Kolovai are descendants of bats given to the King by a Samoan princess.

In the Indian village of Puliangulam, a colony of Indian flying foxes lives in a banyan tree. Villagers believe the bats are protected by a god named Muni and do not harm them. There is a shrine to Muni under the tree.

Flying foxes are also in folk stories from Papua New Guinea. One story says a cockatoo stole feathers from a flying fox, making it nocturnal. Another tells of a flying fox that could turn into a young man and stole a woman. A legend says a flying fox-man brought yams to his people.

In the past, people in Oceania used parts of flying foxes for weapons and ceremonies. In the Solomon Islands, they made spear tips from bat bones. In New Caledonia, ceremonial axes were decorated with braided flying fox fur. The Asmat people of Indonesia painted flying fox wings on their war shields, believing they offered protection.

Flying fox parts have also been used as money. In New Caledonia, braided flying fox fur was once currency. On Makira Island in the Solomon Islands, people still hunt flying foxes for their teeth, which are strung into necklaces and used as money. The teeth of the insular flying fox are especially valued. Some believe that keeping the cultural value of flying foxes might encourage sustainable hunting practices, rather than stopping the practice entirely.

See also

In Spanish: Zorros voladores para niños