The Australian Fruit Bat

By Constantine And Nicholas

About sixty-five species of bat live in Australia, including eight fruit bats. There are nearly one thousand types of bats of many different shapes and sizes. Bats  are the only mammals that fly.  Each species of bat is different, flying, feeding and living in its own way. The Grey Headed Fruit Bat is sometimes called the Grey Headed Flying Fox. 

The Grey Headed Fruit Bat's full name is;  Piteous   Poliocephalus. It has a body length of 230-280 mm and an arm length of 138-164mm. The Grey Headed Fruit Bat is not the largest of the bats, but it is much larger than the insect eating bat. It has reddish yellow fur around its neck , contrasted by the dark wings and fur on the rest of the body. The wings are skin membranes between elongated fingers. Unlike many other bats fruit bats have no tail. 

   HABITAT    

The Grey Headed Fruit wonders extensively in its search for food forming roosting colonies or camps in the November and December months. Scouts bats locate food sources and communicate this to the bats roosting at camp. They are social creatures, living in large colonies, or camps. Many thousands can be seen hanging in the upper branches of trees during the day, at the one time. Occasionally fruit orchards are raided. When asleep, their wings can completely wrap around their bodies.

                  

BREEDING

Young Grey Headed Fruit Bats are born in October, when the females in advanced pregnancy roost separately from the males. The female gives birth while hanging upside down catching her baby in her wing to prevent it from falling to the ground. The single young feed on milk from the mother's teats located in her armpits and are later weaned on to the adult's diet. Young bats roost together in groups when camps are formed.

 

DIET

Bats are nocturnal creatures that is why they feed at night. Their keen sense of smell is important in locating their food. They have sensitive noses and large eyes that enable them to pick up the scents of flowers and ripe fruit and locate them in darkness. Sometimes they travel many kilometres in search of their favourite trees. 

Their food consists on fruit, blossoms, nectar,  pollen and small seeds of native trees. The fruit juice and pulp is obtained by crushing the fruit. They spit out the skin and fiber after swallowing the juicy pulp.  They also may feed on berries such as grapes and cherries.

                          DEFENCE
Bats have few natural predators. Roosting high in the trees provides protection from some predators, although flight is used to escape should a predator such as a python climb the tree and attack. Hawks and owls catch a few, and so do domestic cats. Man is also a threat because of what is being done to their habitats/the natural environment and reduced food supply, by spraying land and crops with pesticides.

 

WHERE DOES THE FRUIT BAT  LIVE?

The Australian Fruit bat lives wherever there is fruit growing rapidly.

The red on this map of Australia is where the fruit bats live .

 

This is a skeleton of a bat.