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Flying Fox (Indian Fruit Bat)

Jul 16th, 2010 by

If you thought that you have to travel hundreds of kilometres to see the largest bat on mainland India – think again. In fact, it is found in Bangalore itself! The wingspan of this bat – the Indian Fruit Bat (also known as the Flying Fox) – measures a whopping 4 feet!

flying-fox_mg_2170.JPG

Indian Fruit Bats are social animals and in the habit of roosting in large noisy colonies. A single roosting site may have a hundred or more individuals and at times may exceed a thousand of them. These bats often roost on large trees which have spreading branches and at some places they choose bamboo clusters. 

Trees in the heart of busy areas in cities and villages may also be used. In fact, there are some such roosts in Bangalore (e.g. Basavangudi, Infantry Road). There is also a large colony in the Ranganthittoo Bird Sanctuary near Mysore (see picture). Similar roosts can be seen at several places across Karnataka.

The Flying Fox has a dark brown body and black wings. Males have a light yellow colour on the back of the neck and shoulders. They move among the branches with the help of their claws.

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The diet of these bats and their movements are dependent on the flowering and fruiting of trees. These bats are known to have a good memory of fruiting time and location of trees. Soon after sunset, one can see all the bats of a colony flying away in search of fruiting trees.

At times injured bats or even young pups turn up at rehabilitation facilities. These can be taken care of easily with a little patience and can be hopefully rehabilitated. The roosting trees that fall prey to ‘developmental activities’ are threatening the very existence of these interesting animals.

Several myths surround bats. A little effort on our part to understand bats would only fill us with plenty of appreciation for the services rendered by these nocturnal creatures and leave us spellbound.

Posted in Nature Notes | 13 Comments

  • http://naturemagnified.blogspot.com/ Tom

    Thats very informative. Nice photos too. :)

  • http://www.indiadailyphoto.com/ Sasidhar

    I saw a few hundred of these roosting in Chikmangalur last weekend. Massive mammals I must say.

    Also, great photos!

  • http://saandipng.blogspot.com/ Saandip Nandagudi

    Nice info on these species, i have a huge Red Silk Cotton tree Booruga (Kannada) in front of my home & more than 100 of these fruit bats will be found during evening times & they feed on the flowers & friut of this tree almost throught the night. So i will be adding area chamarajpet also ;-) . Nice picture too as always..

  • Vinay

    Nice article Karthik, very informative. Another place i have seen it is on Bangalore Mysore road just after the Bidadi town. There are hundreds of them on three adjacent trees.

  • http://shivanidiwani64.blogspot.com/ shivani

    My maidservant had once shown me these fruit eating bats but i had no idea they could even be so large.Thanks for educating and once again i loved the pics.
    But what you just said about the services rendered by this very interesting species gives me much enthu to know more.All we know is about them is the myths surrounding them and very less of how they are actually helpful to us.Thanks for letting us know.

  • http://backpakker.blogspot.com lakshmi

    Another great post, karthik. Seen quite a few in Sankey lake..but last week, I saw a few tiny bats (not sure if they are fruit bats ) in a cave temple..everytime I aimed my camera, they would fly past me ..and so I just started observing them..there was a pair on one wall and another few on the wall opposite..and when one of the pairs moved out to the opposite wall , it was pulled by the other guys and was not allowed to fly back to join its pair..

  • http://http//recordingnature.wordpress.com radha

    Great pictures. I guess nocturnal animals have a mystique about them. I did not know we had such big bats!

  • http://birdsonthebrainetc.wordpress.com/ Uma

    There is a huge colony at Sankey lake – they start leaving their roosts as it gets dark, and it is amazing to see them take to the air. I just love their faces – they look so cute! Thanks, Karthik, for yet another informative post.

  • http://deponti.livejournal.com Deepa Mohan

    I too have seen the very large colony of bats at Bidadi..and there are several trees in the city where they seem to thrive.

    I have a few very tiny ones in my apartment building, are they a different kind of bat? …in the gloaming, as I swim in our little pool, it’s lovely to see them flitting about…and occasionally just touching the surface of the water for a quick sip!

  • P. Kartik Kumar

    Nice post. You can see a long stream of these bats somewhere around 7.00 pm (give or take 15 minutes) flying to their feeding grounds (oops, trees) from many places in Bangalore.

  • Gopal

    Pretty sure I saw a bunch of flying foxes in the early evening flying over Padmanabhanagar in Bangalore in July of 2011.

    I was at my Aunts’ house, and I pointed up towards the large black silhouettes in the sky. My cousin tried to tell me that those were just cormorants, but they just didn’t look right to me.

    There was a whole colony of them flying overhead for about 20 minutes right at dusk.

  • gita

    thank u for your post kartik. i have visited the basvangudi bat colony with another bat enthusiast. are there white bats in india – in bangalore? or could i have seen an albino individual?

  • http://www.wildwanderer.com Karthik

    Hello Gita,
    You are most welcome. As far as my limited knowledge about bats go, there are no white coloured bats in India (there are in other parts of the world). You may have seen a pale coloured individual (perhaps an albino). It would be difficult for me so say without seeing it myself.