A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Cynopterus brachyotis
Also known as the Short-nosed or Common Fruit Bat. A smallish bat with a forearm length of 6.5cm in adults. It is generally a grey brown colour with the male having a reddish collar and the female a yellowish one. The snout is quite short and it has small tubular like nostrils which I guess looks a bit 'dog like'. The diagnostics for ID are the white finger bones and a white border to the ears.
A common bat throughout its range of Asia from Sri Lanka and Burma, through SE Asia to the Philippines and Indonesia. This little guy was roosting on his own under the eves of the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve Visitor Center (The old one).
Pretty sure this is a male as a foxy red is just visible around his neck area. An interesting fact. These bats eat the juice of larger fruits so chow down on the fruit, suck the juice out of it and spit out the pulp. A sort of flying juicer! They will also eat smaller fruits whole and do their bit for spreading seeds.
Spotted on Mar 18, 2016
Submitted on Jun 5, 2016
1 Comment
My pleasure Polilla. The second image puts me in mind of one of those 1970 Dracula movies. Poor little guy only eats fruit juice but looks can be deceiving :)