Malayan Flying Foxes Facts and Information

This unique animal has several names like megabats and Old World fruit bats, their original name is Fruit Bat. Sometimes they are called the flying foxes but it’s not their real name. The scientific name for the family of the fruit bats is Pteropodidae. It’s possible to define these bats more broadly, any bat that consumes fruit is called the fruit bat. There are more basics and details about this unique creature, join us as learn about them in detail.

Types of Flying Foxes

Through the ages, scientists have successfully discovered 42 species of this amazing animal including:

• Genus Acerodon – Fruit Bats
• Genus Aethalops – Pygmy Fruit Bat
• Genus Alionycteris – Mindanao Pygmy Fruit Bat
• Aproteles – Bulmer’s Fruit Bat
• Balionycteris – Spotted-winged Fruit Bat
• Genus Casinycteris – Short-palate Fruit Bat
• Genus Chironax – Black-capped Fruit Bat
• Genus Cynopterus – Short-nosed Fruit Bat
• Genus Dobsonia – Naked-backed Fruit Bat
• Genus Dyacopterus – Dyak Fruit Bat
• Genus Eidolon Fruit Bat
• Genus Eonycteris – Dawn Bats
• Genus Epomophorus – Epauletted Fruit Bat
• Genus Epomops – Epauletted Bats
• Genus Haplonycteris – Philippine Pygmy Fruit Bat
• Genus Harpyionycteris – Harpy Fruit Bat
• Genus Hypsignathus – Hammer-headed Fruit Bat
• Genus Latidens – Salim Ali’s Fruit Bat
• Genus Lissonycteris – Soft-furred Fruit Bat
• Genus Macroglossus – Long-tongued Fruit Bat
• Genus Megaerops – Tailless Fruit Bat
• Genus Megaloglosus – Woermann’s Bat
• Genus Melonycteris – Fruit Bats
• Genus Micropteropus – Dwarf Epauletted Fruit Bat
• Genus Myonycteris – Collared Fruit Bat
• Genus Nanonycteris – Veldkamp’s Bat
• Genus Neopteryx – Small-toothed Fruit Bat
• Genus Notopteris – Long-tailed Fruit Bat
• Genus – Nyctimene – Tube-nosed Fruit Bat
• Genus Otopteropus – Luzon Fruit Bat
• Genus Paranyctimene – Unstriped Tube-nosed Bat
• Genus Penthetor – Lucas’s Short-nosed Fruit Bat
• Genus Plerotes – D’anchieta’s Fruit Bat
• Genus Ptenochirus – Musky Fruit Bat
• Genus Pteralopex – Monkey-faced Bat
• Genus Pteropus – Flying Fox
• Genus Rousettus – Manado Fruit Bat
• Genus Scotonycteris – Pohle’s Fruit Bat (Zenker’s Fruit Bat)
• Genus Sphaerias – Blandord’s Fruit Bat
• Genus Styloctenium – Stripe-faced Fruit Bat
• Genus Syconycteris – Blossom Bat
• Genus Thoopterus – Swift Fruit Bat

Evolution

Through the years, bats have had an undeserved bad reputation. Some people link them with vampires while some people have wrongfully labeled them as flying rats. Despite these myths, bats have been soaring in the sky for millions of years, some studies claim their presence since the start of life on the Earth. Here is a question where did they originate from?

Scientists have discovered some fossils of them in various locations around the Earth, they claim that these fossils are from 50 million years ago during the Eocene Era. Paleontologists have found jaw fragments, some teeth, and even complete skeletons of them throughout the world. Compared to the bats from this time, the ancient ones couldn’t echolocate and also they had claws on all of their fingers. Modern technology has revealed that 48 million years ago, the bats were brown.

Although, scientists are still studying and finding the origin of the bats it has been suggested that ancient bats usually lived in the forests. There isn’t much evidence to prove this theory as their remains are rarely found because the environment is not that suitable for preservation. The bats living near the lakes or the river have been well-preserved because of the oxygen-depleted water and fine sediments in those areas. These environments allow fossils to be quickly buried away from the scavengers and decomposers. 

Scientists need to discover more sites throughout the world that contain fossils that are between 55 to 65 million years old to understand how the bats first came into existence and their evolution to fly. Without reasonably complete fossils scientists can only present myths like the old bats had fur and they went from a gliding stage before a powered flight, and their diet consisted of just the insects as the bat itself is a small creature.

The bats have been evolving around the Earth for about 50 million years, scientist claims their origin stems from the extinction of dinosaurs some 60 million years ago. But the scientists don’t have any solid evidence to prove it, it’s still a mystery. 

Species

The Pteropodidae family consists of more than 170 species across 42 different genera. Their largest genus is called Pteropus which alone contains 59 different species. It includes the Indian fruit bats and the Australian little red fruit bats with many other species scattered throughout the Pacific Islands. The other well-known species are the hammer-headed bats, Egyptian fruit bats, and the Buettikofer’s epauletted fruit bats of Western Africa. 

Appearance

The fruit bats have many hallmarks of mammalian ancestry despite being the only mammal capable of full flight. The hallmarks include the long fur coat and the ability to produce milk. Their wing membranes are extended flaps of skin. Some of their main defining features include relatively large eyes, a canine-like face, erect ears, two upper and lower canine teeth, and a big rostrum. 

Some species of fruit bats possess all manners of unique accouterments. For instance, the tube-nosed fruit bat has tube-shaped nostrils. The hammer-headed bat has a large snout that is shaped like a hammer. The Franquet’s and Buettikofer’s epauletted fruit bats have scent glands on the shoulders, that are decorated with small tufts of fur for social purposes. 

Their large size is another defining feature. While their few species measure only some inches from head to tail. Fruit bats are the largest bats on the Earth. They have a remarkable wingspan of 5.5 feet or the size of some humans. Some smaller fruit bats have short wings that enable them to easily maneuver while flying under the canopies. The larger fruit bats have narrower and longer wings that allow them to fly for longer periods than the smaller fruit bats. The male bats are larger than the female bats, the males are likely to have more unique appearances while the female ones have more fox-like appearance. 

Behavior

The bats have a nocturnal nature. They become active at night times and during dawn hours to feed. This nature is possessed by all the species of bats except only a few who don’t follow this nature and feed during the daytimes. The main reason for the bat’s nocturnal nature is that they want to avoid the predators that are active in the daytime. So, the bats only come out when they are inactive. Some species of the bat don’t seem to have problems with their predators so they become active in the daytime as well. 

The fruit bats are different in some aspects from the other families of the bats. They rely more on their abilities like their smell sense and vision sense rather than the echolocation to perceive the world around them. Only a few species of fruit bats use tongue clicking to stimulate a crude form of sonar. 

The bats tend to be the most sociable of all the mammals in the World. Their social arrangements usually revolve around large groups of 200,000 individuals. The bats are more seen in those places where the availability of food is not a problem.

Most of the species of bats tend to remain near the roosting site for much of their lives while some tend to migrate immense distances. The Egyptian fruit bats can learn from the other bats to alter their vocalizations. 

Population

The number of alive bats is still unknown. The IUCN claims that 4 species have extinct, 88 species are least concerned, 40 are vulnerable, 13 are near threatened, 15 as endangered, and 22 as insufficient data. Putting a full stop to the destruction of their habitat can prevent these threatened species from extinction.

What Do Flying Foxes Eat?

They are dependent on the flowers for their survival. Most of the time they tend to eat fruits, pollen, and nectar. The bats tend to squeeze the juice from the fruit with their teeth and leave the fleshy part uneaten. Each species has its own choice of flowers and fruits to eat. 

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