Animal Species:Black Flying-fox
Black Flying-foxes are the largest species of flying-fox in Australia. They can fly at 35 - 40 kilometres per hour and may travel over 50 kilometres from their camp to a feeding area. They often share their camps with other flying-fox species.
Black Flying-fox
GB Baker
© Australian Museum
Habitat
Black Flying-foxes are found high on the branches of trees. They roost in groups of up to many thousands of bats, called camps. Camps are found in mangroves, paperbark swamps or patches of rainforest.
Feeding and Diet
Black Flying-foxes eat the pollen and nectar of blossoms of eucalypts, paperbarks and turpentine trees. They also feed on other flowers and fruit, including introduced and commercial fruits like mangoes.
Economic/social impacts
Black Flying-foxes are vulnerable to loss of feeding areas from clearing of native vegetation and land degradation from agriculture.
Classification
- Species:
- alecto
- Genus:
- Pteropus
- Family:
- Pteropodidae
- Order:
- Chiroptera
- Subclass:
- Eutheria
- Subphylum:
- Vertebrata
- Phylum:
- Chordata
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
Last Updated:
Tags bats, mammals, flying, vertebrates, eutherians, placentals, identification, bats in Australia, flight,
