FLYING FOX AUSTRALIA

The Black Flying Fox and other flying foxes

Updated Apr 2022

The Black Flying Fox is a type of fruit bat.  Fruit bats are the largest of the world’s many bat species.  They are called flying foxes because of their size, and their face looks similar to that of a fox.  There are about 60 different species living around the world.

Fruit bats eat nectar and fruit and live only in the tropics, where there is enough fruit to support large numbers.  Colonies can number in the thousands.  They do not have echolocation like small bats, so they use sight and smell to find food sources.

Some species of fruit bats in the South Pacific and Africa are endangered because humans eat them.  In some countries, a meal of flying fox is considered a delicacy.  Farmers shoot them because they eat their fruit.  Thousands of bats can eat a lot of fruit in one night.

The largest flying foxes have a wingspan of 1.5 metres and weigh more than one kilo.  The Black Flying Fox is all black except for the neck, which is reddish-brown.  The Grey-headed Flying Fox is smaller, with a wingspan of just over one metre.  As the name implies, they have a light grey heads.  The remainder of the body is dark grey, but, like the Black Flying Fox, they also have a reddish-brown collar.  Flying Foxes reside along the east and north coasts of Australia.  Large colonies of Black-flying Foxes live in parks right in the city of Sydney.  They usually have a lifespan from two to six years, depending on food availability.  With plenty of food, they can live for more than ten years.

They travel up to 50 km each night to feed.  Flying Foxes sleep during the day and head out at nightfall to feed, returning to their roost in the morning, but they are not sound sleepers.  They squawk, stretch, and get into quarrels with their neighbours if they are too close.  If you hear them, you might think that it is a bunch of birds, for that is what they sound like.  Sometimes they fly short distances to another tree to get a better spot, which is how I got these daytime photos.

Flying Fox in Australia

People in Australia do not eat or shoot them, but their populations decline due to habitat loss.

I have seen dozens of small insect-eating bats in my travels but getting a look at the enormous flying fox was one of the top items on my list of wildlife to see in Australia.  Amazing.