The fruit bat is a large taxonomical family of related species, mostly originating from the tropical and subtropical areas of Africa and Asia.

The fruit bat spends much of its time hanging upside down in trees or caves with other members of the same species. They are aptly named for their habit of feasting exclusively on fruits and plant parts. However, many species are currently endangered by hunting and habitat loss.

4 Incredible Fruit Bat Facts!

• The bat is an exquisitely talented flyer. In fact, it is the only mammal fully capable of flight.
• These bats have an unfortunate tendency to incubate viruses and other diseases.
• While the fossil record of the fruit bat is sparse, genetic analysis reveals that the ancestor of all fruit bats probably evolved more than 30 million years ago.
• One of the more amazing facts is that fruit bats play an important role in their local ecosystem by dispersing undigested seeds or pollen throughout the environment. Some plants have even evolved unique adaptations that make it easier for the bats to feed. This mutually beneficial adaptation is an example of a symbiotic relationship.

Fruit Bat Scientific Name

The scientific name for the family of fruit bats is Pteropodidae (this is derived from a combination of Latin words that roughly translate to mean “wing-foot” in English). This family is also sometimes known as megabats, flying foxes, and Old World fruit bats. However, it is possible to define fruit bat more broadly than this. It can mean basically any bat that consumes fruit. By this definition, there are several more species within the family of New World leaf-nosed bats (scientific name Phyllostomidae). As the name suggests, the New World leaf-nosed bats reside in the Americas. They have therefore evolved very different physical and behavioral traits compared to their cousins in the Old World Pteropodida family.

Types of Fruit Bats

The Old World Pteropodidae family contains more than 170 different species across 41 different genera. The largest genus is known as Pteropus, which contains some 59 species alone, including the Indian flying fox, Rodrigues flying fox, the little red flying fox of Australia, and many others scattered throughout the Pacific Islands. Other well-known species include the Egyptian fruit bat, the hammer-headed bat, and the Buettikofer’s epauletted fruit bat of Western Africa.

Fruit Bat Appearance

Despite being the only mammal capable of full flight, the fruit bat has many hallmarks of mammalian ancestry, including the long coat of fur and the ability to produce milk. Even the wing membranes are just extended flaps of skin. However, there are many defining features of a fruit bat such as the relatively large eyes, the simple erect ears, the canine-like face, two upper and lower canine teeth, and a big rostrum (the beak-like part extending from the nose).

Some species possess all manner of unique accouterments. The tube-nosed fruit bats, for instance, have tube-shaped nostrils that project from the snout. The aptly named hammer-headed bat has a large, blunt snout that’s shaped conspicuously like a hammer. The Franquet’s and Buettikofer’s epauletted fruit bats of Africa have scent glands on their shoulders decorated with small tufts of white fur for social purposes (the word epauletted literally means a type of decorated shoulder pad).

Another defining feature of these animals is a large size. While a few species measure only a few inches from head to tail, the fruit bats are on average the largest types of bats in the world. The impressive large flying fox has a remarkable wingspan of approximately 5.5 feet or the size of some people. The shape of the wings seems to be tied directly to the body size. Smaller fruit bats have shorter wings that enable them to maneuver very well while flying under canopies. Larger fruit bats have longer and narrower wings that enable them to fly for longer periods of time over immense distances. Males tend to be larger than females on average. When physical differences exist, the males are more likely to have unique appearances, while the female has a more typical fox-like appearance.

Fruit Bat Behavior

One of the bat’s defining traits is their nocturnal nature; they come out at night between the dusk and dawn hours to feed. Fruit bats are no different. Only a few species buck this trend and feed during the day. Many potential reasons have been hypothesized to explain the bat’s nocturnal behavior, but the most likely explanation is that the bat is trying to avoid predators. The few species that do regularly venture out during the daylight hours appear to be free of predatory pressures.

Despite sharing this nocturnal behavior with their bat cousins, fruit bats are unique in many respects. They are the only family of bats that regularly rely on their sense of smell and vision rather than echolocation (the animals’ “sonar” system) to perceive the world around them. Only a few species of fruit bats are actually capable of simulating a crude form of sonar through the use of tongue clicking. However, it is unclear whether the fruit bats lost the echolocation ability in the distant past or simply never evolved it in the first place.

These bats tend to be among the most sociable of all mammals. With the exception of a few solitary species, their social arrangement usually revolves around large groups of up to 200,000 individuals. The size of the group may be related to the availability of local food supply. In places where food is more common, the bats will congregate in huge numbers.

While a few species migrate immense distances with the advent of the seasonal rains, most of these animals remain near the same roosting site for much of their lives. These roosts are a cacophony of different sounds and noises such as squeaking, bleats, and trills. At least one species, the Egyptian fruit bat, has the ability to learn from other individuals and alter their vocalizations, which gives rise to a kind of local dialect.

Fruit Bat Habitat

The tropical or subtropical forests and savannas of the Eastern Hemisphere, spanning between the Eastern Mediterranean and Australia, contain all the fruit bat species from the family of Pteropodidae. A few more species unrelated to this family can be found in Central and South America. More than half of the fruit bats roost in trees; the rest inhabit caves, rocks, bushes, and even buildings. If left undisturbed, they have shown the ability to use the same roost site for decades.

Fruit Bat Predators and Threats

Besides the threat of natural predators, the three greatest dangers to the fruit bat’s existence are habitat loss (which destroys its roosting site and food sources), deliberate poisoning or shooting by farmers (to prevent them from raiding crops), and overhunting for their meat. Habitat degradation is further exacerbated by the looming threat of climate change.

What eats the fruit bat?

These animals are preyed upon by some snakes, lizards, birds of prey, and carnivorous mammals, including humans.

What does the fruit bat eat?

These animals are entirely dependent on flowering plants for its survival. They spend most of their time foraging for a rich selection of fruits, pollen, and nectar. In order to feed, the bat will squeeze out the juice from the fruit with its teeth and leave behind the fleshy parts uneaten. Each species of fruit bat demonstrates a tendency to favor specific plants, based on what’s available in the environments. Some species are so closely intertwined with the local flora that they’ve evolved specific adaptations to feed on the plants.

Fruit Bat Reproduction and Life Cycle

The mating strategy is perhaps the most poorly understood aspect of the animal’s behavior; in part, because it can vary so much from one species to another. Based on observational studies, we know that many species are fully promiscuous, while others are monogamous. Another mating strategy is polygyny; these bats form large harems consisting of a single male and several females, while the remaining males gather together in bachelor groups. The males will attempt to attract females with unique vocalizations and wing-flapping displays.

While most bats only mate once per year, some species appear to have two reproductive seasons based around the cycles of the wet and dry seasons. Upon becoming pregnant, the females will sometimes leave en masse and form large nursery groups, where they engage in mutual grooming and care.

Gestation usually lasts four to six months, but the mother has the ability to delay the development of the embryo until more favorable environmental and dietary conditions arise so she can support the young baby. If conditions are particularly favorable, then she will give birth and begin lactation to coincide with the height of the fecund rainy season. She only tends to produce a single baby at a time and rarely multiple offspring.

As the mother is responsible for almost all parental care, the young pups may remain with her for the first four months of their lives, receiving both milk and protection. It takes about two years for the baby to reach full sexual maturity. If they can survive this far, these animals have a lifespan of around 30 years in captivity and in the wild.

Fruit Bat Population

It is not know how many of these animals are alive today, but the number is likely to be quite substantial, given their wide distribution across Africa and Asia. According to the IUCN Red List, nearly half all fruit bat species are considered to be least concern. Another quarter of species are threatened in some capacity, and several of these (like the Rodrigues fruit bat) are currently listed as endangered or critically endangered. Putting a halt to habitat destruction may be the key to prevent these threatened species from sliding into extinction.

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