Rodrigues Fruit Bat Factfile
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Scientific Name : Pteropus rodricensis
World Distribution
As their name suggests, Rodrigues fruit bats come from the island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean.
Habitat
Their habitat is tropical rainforest. They spend most of the day roosting in the tree tops and come out as it goes dark to feed.
Feeding
Fruits such as mangoes, figs, papayas and tamarinds are the staple diet of this bat. They much prefer the soft, juicy parts of the fruit so they spit out the pips and skin! They find food mainly by using their sense of sight and smell.
Predators
There is very little information available about the wild predators of Rodrigues fruit bats but it is thought that birds of prey, snakes and large lizards will eat them if they can catch them.
However, their most dangerous predators are human beings! For a long time, people have hunted them in large numbers for meat.
Breeding
Rodrigues fruit bats live in large groups known as camps. (At one time, before the bats became so rare, these groups could have 500 bats!) Within the camp some of the males become leaders and gather a harem of up to females with whom they roost and mate. The younger or less successful males sleep separately in another part of the camp.
Each female has just one baby each year, which she feeds with milk from the teats under her arms. For the first month the baby stays with its mother, clinging to her fur with its sharp milk teeth. It will not be fully independent until it is about a year old, and it may be another year before it has a baby of its own.