MALAYAN FLYING FOX BATS, LIVE WEBCAM

More info: The Malayan flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus) is a bat native to Southeast Asia and can be found in Vietnam, Myanmar, the Malaysian Peninsula, Indonesia, Borneo, and the Philippines. It is also known as the greater flying fox, Malayan flying fox, Malaysian flying fox, large fruit bat, kalang, or kalong.

Malayan flying foxes have reddish brown heads with a distinctive fox-like appearance. The body is brown to black with yellow patches between the shoulders and they weigh from 0.65kg to just over 1 kg with a wingspan of up to 1.8mtrs.

The Malayan flying fox does not echolocate but uses its excellent eyesight and sense of smell to find its way around and search for food. Malayan flying foxes are mostly nocturnal, flying up to 60 km a night to reach their feeding grounds. In the wild, these bats eat pollen, nectar, flowers, leaves and fruit and are important pollinators and seed dispersers for tropical trees.

Flying foxes are very social creatures that roost in the thousands. One colony was once recorded numbering around 2,000 individual bats and colonies of 10,000-20,000 have also been reported. Upon arrival at feeding grounds, large flocks of bats form family or feeding groups. They may circle a fruit tree before landing, and usually land on the tips of branches in an upright position, before falling down into a head first position from which they feed. When roosting the flying fox is positioned upside down with its wings wrapped up and if it gets too warm, the bat fans itself with its wings. Roosting bats are usually restless until midmorning.