Wonders of Nature Australia II- The Fascinating Flying Foxes

I hope you are not disappointed I didn't want to write about cute kangaroos and koalas. You see, everyone knows kangaroos and koalas but flying foxes are maybe less well-known.

Did you know that all bats are actually mammals, the only mammals that are capable of sustained flight? They are able to fly just like birds. The species has two suborders, megabats and microbats. Megabats do not usually rely on echolocation, they use their sense of sight and smell to locate food and orient themselves. Megabats are also know as fruit bats because their diet mainly consists of fruits, pollen and nectar. They are in the minority, as 70% of bats are insectivores. And what about good old Dracula myth then? Well, there are only 3 species of blood sucking vampire bats, and all of them can be found in Mexico or Central America. Only one of the is a true vampire, feasting on human blood.

There they are, enjoying the sunny day 

But we won't care too much about vampire bats, we will concentrate on fruit bats because we have them here in Australia. I used to believe bats were small animals, maybe the size of a mouse. And that might be true in Finland but in Australia everything comes in extra large size. For example, the grey-headed flying fox has a wing span of 1 meter, their body is 20-30 centimeters but they only weight around one kilo, probably because it could he a bit challenging to hang upside down in a tree were they any heavier.

Fruit bats have an important role in the local ecosystem, they help to pollinate and dispense the seeds of native trees. The eucalyptus and paperbark trees I mentioned in the previous post need the bats' help to survive. Unfortunately many aspects of modern life threaten the bats. They suffer from habitat loss, and barbed wire and fruit tree netting are both dangerous for these nocturnal wanderers. In addition bats are sometimes seen as vermin by people and treated accordingly.

Twilight is the perfect moment to see bats.. I didn't manage to capture any in the pic, they were too fast

BTW, the fruit bats are quite clever, they are about as intelligent as dolphins. They are also sociable animals living in colonies. And you can smell a colony from afar, especially on a rainy day when their natural odor permeates the air. (You can also hear them during the day, they are very noisy and it must be an urban legend that bats sleep during the day!) Bats are slow to reproduce, on average they only have one pup per year. They are good mothers and sometimes a mother bat that lost her pup is known to have adopted an orphaned pup.

OK, I guess that was all you need to know about fruit bats. If you'd like to see how cute they can be, click this link and see how a clever baby bat steals a snack :)
Clever baby bat steals a milk bottle