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Flying Foxes
INTERESTING CREATURES
Waterfalls Magazine – This week’s interesting creature is not a fox that can fly but a large bat that looks like a fox.
They are called flying foxes because of their thick fur coat and pointy ears but they belong to a genus of megabats that is among the largest in the world.
Flying foxes have a wingspan of 1.5 meters and are about 16 inches long. These flying mammals can be found in South and Southeast Asia, Australia, East Africa, and some of the oceanic Islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
A flying fox
Unlike their blood-sucking cousins, the vampire bats, and flying foxes feed on fruits and plant matter. Occasionally they feed on insects too.
However, the bat is still a dangerous creature because of its disease-carrying capabilities.
According to researchers, flying foxes are reservoirs of rare but potentially fatal viruses such as the Australian bat Lyssavirus which causes rabies. It can also transmit Hendra and Nipah viruses which can be deadly too.
Like all bats, flying foxes are nocturnal animals that roost in groups known as camps during the day by hanging upside down but there are some differences.
They rely solely on eyesight to navigate and feed while their cousins Echolocate- use sound frequencies (or echoes) to hunt and locate prey.
Flying foxes roosting during the day
Flying Foxes also have colour vision.
Apart from its interesting characteristics, flying foxes have a long life span and produce one offspring per year.
This means it is a low-reproductive creature and due to excess hunting and being trapped in nets used by farmers to protect their fruit trees, flying foxes are a declining species.
Efforts are being made to conserve them because they play a key role in pollinating the forests.
Source of info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteropus
https://www.britannica.com/animal/flying-fox
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