Meet the World’s Biggest Bat | National Geographic

as the Sun Goes Down every evening in
northern Australia millions of dark huge
winged creatures dominate the skies
they’re an imposing sight but these
black flying foxes are just big harmless
bats the biggest in the world their
wingspan can reach a whopping six feet
given that the world’s smallest bat
species weighs less than a penny that’s
pretty big nearly one quarter of the
world’s mammal species are bats 160 of
these are fruit bats and 60 of these are
called flying foxes for their unique
looking Fox like faces the black flying
fox babies can’t fly for the first month
which means the moms have to carry them
even when they become airborne at night
they search for fruit and nectar mainly
through sight and smell like other fruit
bats and vampire bats black flying foxes
don’t rely on echolocation
during the day they live in huge
colonies or camps housing up to a
hundred thousand flying foxes usually
they stay relatively cool by roosting in
mangrove and paper bark trees that sit
in water but sometimes even this
location isn’t cool enough ever wear a
black fur coat in the intense Australian
heat you can imagine why they fan
themselves and when that doesn’t work
they lick themselves they cool down a
little as their saliva evaporates but
with a hundred thousand bats in the same
grove of trees things are bound to heat
up
fights often break out over which branch
belongs to who they defend their turf
but they rarely break skin mostly it’s
just a lot of noisy posturing posturing
aside this big black flying creature is
nothing more than a fuzzy foxy looking
vegetarian