Flying
foxes
Family
Pteropodidae
Over 173
species in 44 genera.
A
suborder of large bats, with a wing-span of up to 1.5 m, that
roost on colonies in trees, often feed in large groups, emit loud
cries, and orientate by sight and smell, not by echolocation
(except in one genus,
Rousettus).
Distributed
throughout the Old World tropics and subtropics from Africa to E
Asia and Australasia including many islands in the Indian and
Pacific oceans east to the Cook Islands. A few species reach
warmer temperate regions north to Turkey and Syria and to the
extreme south of Africa and SE Australia.
Most species
with dog-like faces, large eyes and conspicuous widely separated
simple ears.
Coat:
drab brown but a few species are brightly colored, e.g. Rodriguez
flying fox varies from black to silver, yellow, orange and red.
Tube-nosed bats are brightly colored with speckled membranes and a
dorsal stripe: cryptic coloration helps avoid predation while
roosting among foliage.
A few species
have secondary sexual characters, which develop in males for use
in attracting females, eg tufts of light-colored or white hair
emanating from glandular patches on shoulders.
Males attract
females by singing loudly and flashing the hair tufts.
Diet primarily
plant material, chiefly soft ripe fruit but also flowers, nectar
and pollen which are taken by some smaller species (e.g.
Macroglossus species) by their long tongue bearing bristle-like
papillae: some may eat insects. May eat leaves at time of extreme
food storage. Flying foxes are essential to the pollination of
many plants and to dispersing seeds. Some of the medium-sized and
larger fruit bats are highly gregarious,
forming colonies which may exceed one million individuals.
The largest colonies,
formed by the cave-dwelling rousette fruit bats (Rousettus
species),
number several million;
these bats, which feed primarily on nectar and pollen, must fly
considerable distances nightly to find sufficient food for
survival.
