Little Red Flying Fox

 

By Dr Martin Cohen & Julia Cooper (Wild about Australia)

 

Little Red Flying Foxes belong to a group of bats known as Megachiroptera. These bats are very different to the usually smaller, insect-eating bats (known as Microchiroptera). Unlike the insect-eating bats, flying foxes do not use echolocation but rely on their excellent colour, stereo eyesight and keen sense of smell to track down flowers and fruit that make up their vegetarian diet.

 

Flying foxes, or fruit bats, are found in tropical areas throughout the world. Australia has a good diversity with five flying foxes and three smaller tube-nose fruit and blossom bats. They forage all night flying many kilometres away from their daytime roost in search of food. During the day, flying foxes roost in the tops of trees, fanning themselves with their wings when exposed to the harsh sun and occasionally wrapping themselves up in their wings when they sleep.

 

The smallest of the flying foxes in Australia is the Little Red. Their fur is rich reddish-brown with a greyish head. Their wings are also red brown and translucent in flight. For much of the year these bats are nomadic, with colonies following the availability of their sporadic food source. However, they often congregate in large numbers, often beside water, with over a million individuals within a camp in some parts of Northern Australia. They feed almost entirely on blossom and therefore range over a wide variety of habitats from semi-arid to tropical and temperate woodlands, paperbark swamps and monsoon forests.

 

The wide variety of habitats and forest contained on Cape York Peninsula offers the Little Red Flying Foxes an excellent selection of blossom at most times of the year. They will travel over 30 kilometres a night in search of their food.

 

The largest congregation of Little Red Flying Foxes (or any mammal for that matter) in Australia is on the western edge of Lakefield National Park immediately adjacent to Mary Valley Station. Up to five million of these bats may be roosting here in early summer, around November, when mating commences. Watching them fly out over Mary Valley Station on dusk is an exhilarating experience and one of the world’s greatest wildlife spectaculars.

 

http://www.capeyorkfrontier.com