The Straw Colored Fruit Bat

The straw colored fruit bat is found in Africa, and is the most wide spread of the African fruit bats. Its body is about 215 mm and its wingspan can reach 762 mm. Adults can weigh 230-350 grams! The coloration is yellowish brown or blackish. Their wings are long and narrow and are adapted to flying long distances. The wings are also used in climbing. It inhabits forest and savannas and is found at elevations of up to 2,000 meters. It is a very social bat and prefers to nest in tall trees by day but has also seen to find homes and in caves. During daytime they are often noisy and restless and even flies about from place to place. At night groups fly out of the nests in search of ripe fruit. Juice of various fruits are the choice food, though this bat also feeds on the blossoms and perhaps young shoots of the silk-cotton tree.The bats will eat directly into the fruit of palm trees, and has the unusual habit of chewing into the soft wood, probably to get moisture. The straw-colored fruit bats occur in enormous colonies of 100,00 to 1,000,000. Female bats have one young per year, and a newborn can weigh 50 grams. In some areas these bats are hunted and eaten by humans. They are considered a delicacy in the African tribes.
Credits go to: Bat Conservation
Picture credits go to: Google