Family Pteropodidae
The Pteropodidae are the Old World Fruit Bats.
The claw on the second finger is a key characteristic of the Pteropodidae.
As their English name suggests, all the Pteropodidae visit plants for food, most species taking fruits, but a few specialized species relying on nectar. Because of this they are critical seed dispersers and pollinators.
They are only found in the Old World tropics. The Old World refers to parts of the world that were known to Europeans before the discovery of the Americas, so it includes Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, but not North, Central and South America (which are referred to as the New World). The Old World Fruit Bats are tropical however, so we don’t find them in Europe, and only in the tropical parts of Asia.
Unlike all the other families, all of the Pteropodidae except for one genus, have a claw on their second finger. They have large eyes because they don’t echolocate with high frequencies, so they use vision to find their way at night. Because they don’t need to listen for returning echoes, the ears are simple. They have simple nozes, but long muzzles so they often look quite dog-like. The tail and tail membranes are typically small or non-existant.
This beautiful golden bat is Acerodon celebensis and comes from Sulawesi . Like all the Pteropodidae, notice the large eyes, simple round ears, and long dog-like muzzle.
There are over 175 species of Pteropodidae worldwide, with 20 species recorded for Malaysia. 11 species have been captured at Krau Wildlife Reserve, but only one species Balionycteris maculata tends to get caught in harp traps. The other species typically forage higher up in the forest, in the canopy or mid-storey.
The camp turns the tree black with bats!
They roost in trees, caves, tents, and leaves. Larger species in this family often roost in large colonies in trees, called camps. Camps of 1000s of animals used to be a common sight across Southeast Asia but many species are hunted for food and traditional medicine so there numbers have decreased dramatically and camps are now much smaller and hard to find.
