Each night, a dark cloud of flying foxes, or fruit bats, moves through the skies of eastern Australia on their way to gorge on nectar and fruits. With a meter-wide (3.2-foot) wingspan, they transport large quantities of pollen and rain down seeds in their poop, helping establish new trees. A new study in Scientific Reports provides the first economic […]
Tag: Fruit bats
A man has died after contracting the first NSW case of Australian bat lyssavirus. Here’s everything you need to know about the deadly infection
A man from northern New South Wales has died after contracting the state’s first recorded case of Australian bat lyssavirus, a close relative of the rabies virus. The man, in his 50s, was bitten by a bat “several” months ago and received treatment at the time, NSW Health said. On Thursday, the department confirmed the […]
Lures that attract seed-dispersing bats could aid tropical reforestation
Attracting seed-dispersing bats to degraded landscapes and aiding in tropical forest restoration efforts has long been an alluring prospect for conservationists: potentially a cheaper, less labor-intensive technique than media-hyped plantings of millions of trees. Researchers have experimented with a variety of seed disperser lures for decades, but a recent project in Costa Rica may show […]
Fruit Bats Have Cognitive Abilities Previously Believed to Be Exclusive to Humans, Research Finds
Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have studied free-ranging fruit bats in a colony in Egypt to answer the long-standing question of whether animals have complex cognitive abilities previously thought to exist only in humans. The study focused specifically on mental time travel, episodic memory, delayed gratification and planning ahead, a press release from TAU […]
Despite Weather Extremes, Australia’s Grey-Headed Flying Fox ‘Is Doing OK’
The grey-headed and spectacled species of mainland flying fox — common in Australia, also known as “fruit bats” — have historically experienced such low numbers that they faced the possibility of extinction, reported The Conversation. But after a decade-long survey by the National Flying-fox Monitoring Program (NFFMP) — coordinated by CSIRO, along with state and […]