Straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum)
Straw-coloured fruit bats are the most widely distributed of the African fruit bats and live and travel in vast colonies numbering into the millions. They roost in tall trees, and go off in smaller foraging groups at night searching for ripe fruits. After noisily sucking out the juice from a fruit, they discard the pulp, which makes them important pollinators and seed dispersers. They also chew wood and bark to obtain moisture.
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About the Straw-coloured fruit bat
The straw coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) is the most widely distributed of all the African fruit bats. It is quite common throughout its area ranging from southwestern Arabian Peninsula, forest and savanna zones of Africa (south of the Sahara) and to the offshore island of Africa . These bats are very abundant, but evenso have recently been upgraded to near threatened on the IUCN redlist due to a decreasing population trend. They travel in massive colonies of at least 100,000 and sometimes massing to 1 million. Their neck and back are a yellowish- brown color, while their underside is tawny olive or brownish. This is one of the larger species of fruit bats.
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Scientific Classification
Family: Megabat (Pteropodidae)
Genus: Eidolon
Species: Straw-coloured Fruit Bat (helvum)
The Straw-coloured fruit bat is
Adaptation data provided by Animal Diversity Web
Where can I see them?
They can be found in the following habitats:
Conservation Status
The Straw-coloured fruit bat is Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)
- EX - Extinct
- EW
- CR - Threatened
- EN - Threatened
- VU - Threatened
- NT
- LC - Least concern
Population trend: Decreasing
Year assessed: 2008
Elsewhere on the web
- Eidolon helvum (animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu)
- Straw-coloured fruit bat fact sheet (akronzoo.org)
- Straw-coloured fruit bat conservation (batconservation.org)
- Mammals of Tanzania: species page (fieldmuseum.org)
- Straw-coloured Fruit Bat (wikipedia.org)
Site links
BBC links
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