EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Spectacled Flying-Fox (Pteropus conspicillatus),
Northern Queensland, Australia

Explanation:  On the outskirts of a small town in northern Queensland, Australia, is an amazing spectacle:  a large colony of Spectacled Flying-Foxes.  On their day roost in this tropical rainforest, these bats occupy at least a couple hectares and number perhaps 2,000 or more.  They jostle and vocalize loudly, and eventually settle into their vampire-like rest, folding their wings around them to conserve body heat, and space themselves to provide room to extend their wings.  
 

Their pale eye-rings given them a "spectacled" appearance. 

Flying-Foxes play important ecological roles in old-world tropical forests as key pollinators and dispersal agents of rainforest plants.  In other tropical forests of the world, this same ecological role is also played by monkeys (as we explored in a previous EPOW), but there are no monkeys in Australia.  The ecological niche of monkeys here has been filled by arboreal possums, tree-kangaroos, and bats.

Spectacled Flying-Foxes feed on flowers and fruits (especially pale-colored fruit) and drink freshwater and even seawater while skimming over the surface of water bodies.  When they eat fruit, they press the pulp against the roof of their mouth, squeeze out and swallow the juice, and then spit out fibrous pellets which may contain viable seeds that can germinate.  

In Australia, Spectacled Flying-Foxes are confined to the extreme northeast of Queensland but also range to New Guinea and surrounding islands.  Conservation of this species is a focal project in Australia.

Information:
    Cox, P. A., T. Elmqvist, E. D. Pierson, and W. E. Rainey. 1991. Flying foxes as strong interactors in South Pacific island ecosystems: a conservation hypothesis. Conservation Biology 5(4):448-454.
    Cronin, L. 1991. Key guide to Australian mammals. Reed Books Australia, Kew, Australia. 190 pp.
     Fujita, M. S., and M. D. Tuttle. 1991. Flying foxes (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae): threatened animals of key ecological and economic importance. Conservation Biology 5(4):455-463.
     Eby, P. 1991. "Finger-winged night workers:" managing forests to conserve the role of grey-headed flying foxes as pollinators and seed dispersers. Pp. 91-100 in: D. Lunney, ed. Conservation of Australia's forest fauna. The Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia.
    Triggs, B. 1996. Tracks, scats and other traces: a field guide to Australian mammals. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. 340 pp.