My Temple of Nature: Fantastic Flying Foxes

When I lived in Georgia, my neighbor and I used to watch the bats come out at night and go after the insects that would collect around the overhead lights in the parking lot. There would only be a few bats and I couldn't tell you what kind they were, but watching their acro'bat'ics was entertaining. I know - a bad play on words - but I couldn't resist.

Flying foxes are the largest bats in the world - known as megabats (as opposed to their smaller cousins, the microbats). The megabats actually have fur on their faces and upper bodies which is where they get their name. Like this Giant Golden-crowned flying fox from the Phillipines. Its face really does look like a fox.

Source: Wikipedia

Thinking he looks rather sinister? This guy can have a wingspan of over 5 feet so you might think he's an able predator. Shades of Dracula? He wouldn't attack unless you had a fig in your hand! Strange but true - this flying fox is a fig specialist and figs make up the major part of its diet! That's right - the biggest bats in the world are also known as fruit bats and they are strictly vegetarians. There are many tropical plant species that strictly rely on fruit bats to distribute their seeds. Some megabats eat the nectar from flowers and actually pollinate them. The smaller species are able to hover in the air like hummingbirds and have long tongues that reach deep into the flower acting like the hummingbirds' long bill.

Even though they're called megabats not all species are large - like the Lesser Short-Nosed Fruit Bat which hails from southern Asia and Indonesia and can weigh in at less than an ounce.

Source: Wikipedia

There are 186 species of flying foxes and some species definitely look more benign than others. Like the Sulawesi Flying Fox - isn't it a cutie?

Source: Wikipedia

Some species are highly endangered due to habitat loss, like the Fijian Monkey-faced Bat, a species only found in one small area of Fiji.

Source: Wikipedia

Also unlike the microbats, except for one species, megabats don't use echolocation to navigate, but rely on their eyesight, usually much better than most microbats. Rather than a cave, the black flying fox from Australia (and many other species) roosts in trees during the day.