AWF Blog

  • Two Flying…Foxes?

    Posted: November 13, 2009, 12:40 am by admin

    “I was recently reading a wildlife book in a train station to pass some time, when I thought I saw something about flying foxes. My train got called just as I was about to read the info so I’m still wondering if there really is such a thing as a flying fox?!”

    –Jacob, Chattanooga, TN, U.S.A.

    Your eyes were not deceiving you: there IS such a thing as a flying fox!

    Now, before anyone gets too excited (or weirded out), the flying fox (of the family Pteropodidae) isn’t what your imaginations are thinking it is: a cute, little red fox with wings or some type of folded skin that allows it to glide through the air with the greatest of ease. The flying fox is not really a fox at all- it’s a bat.

    Actually, to be more precise, it’s a mega bat which is exactly what it sounds like- they are mega-big bats, the largest in the world and they are not the stereotypical bloodsuckers- flying foxes are fruit bats and are only found in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world.

    This Rodrigues flying fox is native to Mauritius. © Martin Werker

    There are approximately 173 species of flying fox in the world. The flying fox pictured above is a Rodrigues flying fox (Pteropus rodricensus), and is native to the island of Rodrigues (hence its name), an island of Mauritius. As a native islander, the Rodrigues flying fox is quite sociable and lives in large, patriarchal groups (with a dominant male at the helm) with several females and their offspring. Like all fruit bats, our guy loves…fruit! Particular favorites are tamarinds, rose-apples, mangoes, palms and figs. It can reach up to1lbs. in weight and has a wingspan of approximately 35 inches. And our guy isn’t even the largest of the mega bat species: some mega bats can reach close to 3 lbs. in weight with wingspans of more than 5 feet!

    Flying foxes get their misnomer due to the species’ overall appearance: their tuft of fur, large eyes and pointy ears give their faces a similar appearance to a small fox and since they have wings…well, you can figure out the rest.

    Like many species in Africa loss of habitat is a main threat to population numbers. Since the Rodrigues flying fox is endemic to only one island in the world, its population is completely at the mercy of tropical storms that blow through its island home: its population took a huge hit in 1979 due to damage from Cyclone Celine II, which dropped the population from a few hundred to approximately 70. Thankfully, the 1980’s saw a comeback of sorts and now this fruit eatin’, pollen drinkin’, seed spittin’ critter numbers around 4,000 on its island turf.

    Did You Know …

    • Flying foxes are great for the environment: while eating fruit, they carry their treasured treats with them and spit out any seeds on the forest floor, thereby replanting flora as they fly about.
    • Flying foxes have a great ‘green thumb’: while milling about in front of flowers, the flying fox extends its long tongue to get at the pollen inside the flower. The pollen passes onto the bat, which then pollinates the next flower it approaches for more pollen to eat.
    • Many species of flying fox are threatened with extinction due to the bush meat trade: in many areas of West Africa, for example, flying fox meat is considered a delicacy.
    • Flying foxes belong to an order of mammals called Chiroptera, which means ‘hard wing.’
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