Black Flying-fox
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| Black Flying-fox | ||||||||||||||
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| Pteropus alecto Temminck, 1837 |
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 Black Flying-fox range
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The Black Flying-fox (Pteropus alecto) is a fruit bat in the family Pteropodidae. It has short black hair with a contrasting reddish-brown mantel with a mean forearm length of 164 mm and a mean weight of 710 grams. This species had been known to travel up to 50 km a night in search of food. It is one of only eight pteropodids in Australia.
These bats form large 'camps', or colonies, and are native to Australia. They rest in mangroves, paperbark swamps, patches of rainforest and bamboo forests, and very rarely in caves or underneath overhangs.
They are one of the largest bat species in the world, and have a wing-span of more than one metre.
[edit] Habitat and diet
Black flying-foxes eat pollen and nectar from native eucalyptus, Lilypillies, paperbark and turpentine trees. With the destruction of their natural habit for housing and agriculture, and food becoming harder to find, the Black Flying Fox has also been seen eating introduced fruits such as mangos and apples. Contrary to popular belief, Black Flying Foxes can not defecate while flying, they can only pass excrement while inverting. It is also believed that Flying Foxes defecate from their mouths. This is untrue as anything coming out of their mouths is the waste product not consumed from fruit.
[edit] References
- Hall, L. S. and Richards, G. C. (2000). Flying foxes: fruit and blossom bats. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
- Markus, N. (2002). Behaviour of the black flying fox Pteropus alecto: 2. Territoriality and courtship. Acta Chiropterologica 4(2): 153-166.
- Markus, N. and Blackshaw, J. K. (2002). Behaviour of the black flying fox, Pteropus alecto: 1. An ethogram of behaviour, and preliminary characterisation of mother-infant interactions. Acta Chiropterologica 4(2): 137-152.
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