I know this is a little off topic but I know there are a number of mammal and bat enthusiasts on the site – recently a Flying Fox has taken up residence right outside my door and despite looking at a number of images online I am a little unsure which species it is
ive posted a number of images on my website – go to this link and then click on the flying fox image link
Any feedback much appreciated
http://web.me.com/theplainswanderer
regards
David Taylor
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The description of the Black (Pteropus alecto) given in Menkhorst and Knight is too narrow. They can have quite pronounced eye rings and collars (all the better to confuse the rest of us). Generally the alecto is redish while the speccies (Pteropus conspicuous) are yellower. The speccies are also a generally smaller but this all relies on one knowing what one is looking at in the first place or having a number of animals to look at. The two species smell different too but again, if you don’t have a base line it’s not much help.
Just to confuse things, blacks and greys have been known to hybridise and I would not be surprised of the same was true of blacks and speccies.
The Blacks have moved south at a very fast rate. They are a very dominant species. It’s worth noting that in June, when the bats had been in the food shortage for about 6 months, several hundred animals – both blacks and greys – were caught up by the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. The blacks were all in good condition while the greys were not.
In any mixed camp blacks are reported to roost on the highest branches or in the ‘best’ trees. In rehabilitation they are renounced for being calm and ‘bombproof’.
The move south by the blacks is listed as one of the key threatening processes in the draft National Recovery plan, not that there is a great deal that can be done to stop it. The blacks appear to be considerably more sensitive to cold and any animal that has been in Sydney or further south for any winter period is likely to have very rounded ears due to frost bite. However, I can’t see this as an impediment to their ongoing world domination.
In contrast the speccies are listed as Vulnerable under the EPBC and not doing well. If they can maintain their range that would be exciting, extending it isn’t on the cards for them at present. Their draft Nat Recovery plan is as over due as the greys’ but it is a much shoddier piece of work (in my opinion).
If you are after ID for any bat (big or little) the book to use is Sue Churchill’s Australian Bats. Les Hall has published a guide recently however it’s much less comprehensive (and considerably cheaper).
cheers storm
Just from ‘A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia’ by Peter Menkhorst and Frank Knight it looks more like Spectacled to me because of, in part, the colours of the back. The Black seems to have only a rufuous collar with the rest of the back, black.
OK Brisbane is out of the range shown for the Spectacled Flying-fox (in my 2001 copy) but then the Black arrived in Melbourne recently when its southern limit in 2000 was Brisbane. See http://www.theage.com.au/national/black-bats-hang-out-at-the-bend-20100707-100o9.html
Michael Norris
Hi David
Like the others, I suggest he is a black. Too large for a little red and Brisbane is far outside the speccies range. Too little hair on the legs (and the wrong colour) to be a grey.
There is a food shortage for fruit bats all along the east coast. As a result many are roosting away from their camps, either in or near food trees. This is either (or both) because they are too weak to fly home or because this way they get to the food earlier in the evening than others and have reduced competition. I understand that the apiarists do not expect significant flowering until summer.
Your bat appears to have a significant injury to his/her right thumb. It would be worth ringing Bat Rescue (07 3821 2341 or http://www.bats.org.au/) to talk about getting someone out to look at him and decide if he/she should be in care. Bat Rescue is a free volunteer service.
For interest, Cocos/ Queen palms are dreadful, exotic pest for bats and our native bush, although the bats eat them and spread their seeds. The seeds ruin the bats teeth (too hard and too large) and when green the fruit is a neurotoxin.
I have been reading the list and wondered what impact the food shortage (a lack of significant and high nectar flow flowering) is having on fruit and nectar eating birds? I have not seen any posting about this.
cheers
storm, who has 3 bloody Cocos palms in the yard and far too many bats, because the food shortage is from above Brisbane all the way down to the vic border
Hi David,
I don’t think that this is off topic. This is indeed a Black FF. Spectacled FF has a similar pattern, but the spectacles and the markings in the nape are way more whitish and contrasty. Little Red FF looks “cuter”, is more uniformly reddish and – as Denise pointed out – you can see the blood vessels through the wing.
Cheers,
Nikolas
Hi David,
Another one to consider is Spectacled Flying Fox? The markings are a little fainter than in this picture: http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/view.php?did=25638&tid=3 however it could be a juvenile? Not my area of expertise, but the patterns and colours look like a pretty good match.
Regards, Chris
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Looks like a Black Flying-fox to me. One way of telling Black apart from Little Red is whether the wings look opaque or transparent in flight.
Denise L Goodfellow
on 27/8/10 7:39 AM, david taylor at theplainswanderer@me.com wrote:
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