Fruit bats by Jaiya

The fruit bat is also known as the insular flying fox or the Pacific flying fox by local islanders. These nocturnal animals live in the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean.

Fruit bats are black or seal-brown on the main part of their body. Their wings are a thin, black layer of skin. The mantle varies from orange, yellow, cream, buff or tawny depending on their age. Their forearms and tibia have no fur. The fur covering their body is short, stiff and oily. Fruit bats live in many tropical islands such as; Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia, the Cook Islands, Nuie, Vanuatu and Fiji. They roost high in the trees (to avoid ground predators) in wet forests, mangroves and other warm vegetation.

Fruit bats eat only one thing, fruit. They love to suck all of the sweet nectar out of the fruit instead of eating the actual flesh of the fruit. They eat all sorts of popular fruits throughout the islands. These bats have an excellent sense of smell and vision and they use this skill to help find food. They can actually eat the fruit while flying. Fruit bats live in colonies of fifty bats or more. Sub colonies are small groups inside the bigger groups that contain one male and at least eight females. When sleeping they wrap their wings around themselves to keep warm.

They will roost in caves or any other hanging objects as well as trees.

Above right- https://sites.google.com/site/batsandcatsminusthecats/home/fruit-bat

Above middle- https://www.thinglink.com/scene/865278991680929792

Above left- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabat

Mating only occurs when the colony is at a place where there is lots of food. This naturally stops fruit bats from over-populating the islands. The female is pregnant for around 6 months. They can have up to two babies at a time if the female bat is big enough and strong. The young cling to the female at all times until they are old enough to fly, then they join a sub colony of their own. Fruit bats have many ground and sky predators such as; snakes, weasels, hawks, eagles, cats and humans. Humans don’t like the bats in their garden nor eating their fruit so they sadly kill them. Bats drop fruit seeds all over islands and this gives them an ongoing food source.

References;

http://www.batworlds.com/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabat

Cover image- https://www.thinglink.com/scene/865278991680929792