What Do Fruit Bats Eat? Fruit, Nectar and Seed Spreading

Which bats are fruit bats?

“Fruit bat” usually means a member of the Old World fruit bat family (Pteropodidae), also called megabats. There are around 200 species, living in the tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific islands. They include the giant flying foxes, such as the large flying fox of Southeast Asia, as well as small blossom bats weighing under 20 g (0.7 oz).

In Central and South America, fruit is eaten by a different group: the New World leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae). Species such as the Jamaican fruit-eating bat play the same role there, even though they are not closely related to the Old World fruit bats.

What fruit do fruit bats eat?

Old World fruit bats eat fruit from nearly 190 plant genera. Favorites are soft, sweet and strongly scented fruits:

• Figs, one of the most important foods, because different fig trees ripen at different times of year
• Mangoes, bananas, guavas, papayas and other cultivated fruit
• Rambutan, langsat and other Southeast Asian fruits
• Wild forest fruits of many kinds, including palms

Fruit bats prefer ripe fruit and often feed in noisy groups in the same tree. A large flying fox slices the skin with its teeth, presses the pulp against the roof of its mouth, swallows the juice and soft flesh, and spits out a pellet of dry fiber. Fruit is mostly water and sugar, so bats need to eat a lot. A large flying fox can eat about half its body weight in a day, and some smaller species eat more than their own weight each night.

Do fruit bats drink nectar?

Yes. Many fruit bats eat flowers, nectar and pollen as well as fruit, and some specialize in them. Nectar bats have long snouts and long tongues with brush-like tips for lapping nectar from deep inside flowers. Large flying foxes also visit flowers and, when given the choice, seem to prefer flowers and nectar over fruit.

In Australia, flying foxes such as the grey-headed and black flying foxes feed heavily on the nectar and pollen of eucalyptus trees. Pollen is especially valuable because it is rich in protein, which fruit lacks.

How do fruit bats find their food?

Nearly all Old World fruit bats cannot echolocate. Instead they rely on:

• Smell. Fruit bats have a keen sense of smell, comparable to a dog’s, and can follow the scent of ripening fruit or opening flowers from far away.
• Sight. Large eyes packed with light-sensitive cells let them see well in dim light. Read more in Are bats blind?.
• Memory. Flying foxes often fly the same routes night after night to trees they know are fruiting, returning until the food runs out.

Many plants have evolved to suit bats. “Bat fruits” tend to be strongly scented, dull green or yellow rather than bright red, and held out away from the leaves where a bat can easily reach them. “Bat flowers” usually open at night, are pale and smell musky or fruity.

How far do fruit bats travel to feed?

Flying foxes leave their daytime roosts around sunset and fly to feeding areas, often in long, scattered streams across the evening sky. Many species commute 20–50 km (12–31 mi) in a night, and the large flying fox has been recorded flying up to about 50 km (31 mi) to reach food. Some fruit bats migrate hundreds of kilometers as different trees come into fruit or flower.

How do fruit bats spread seeds?

Fruit bats digest food extremely quickly, often in half an hour or less. Small seeds, generally under about 4 mm (0.16 in), are swallowed and dropped in droppings, sometimes many kilometers from the parent tree. Larger seeds are carried away in the mouth and dropped where the bat stops to eat.

Because they fly long distances and often cross open ground, fruit bats can carry seeds into cleared or damaged land where birds rarely go. This makes them important for helping forests regrow, especially on islands, where they are sometimes the main seed dispersers left.

Which plants do bats pollinate?

As bats feed on nectar, pollen sticks to their fur and is carried to the next flower. Plants pollinated mainly or partly by bats include:

• Durian, the famous strong-smelling fruit of Southeast Asia, whose night-opening flowers are pollinated mainly by nectar bats such as the cave nectar bat, with flying foxes also visiting
• Baobab trees in Africa
• Many eucalyptus trees in Australia
• Agave and large cacti such as the saguaro in Mexico and the southwestern US, visited by nectar bats of the leaf-nosed family

Without bats, crops such as durian would produce far less fruit, which is one reason scientists describe fruit and nectar bats as valuable to farmers as well as forests.

Do fruit bats damage crops?

Sometimes. Fruit bats can raid orchards of mangoes, lychees, rambutans and other fruit, especially when wild food is scarce. This brings them into conflict with farmers, and bats are often killed in response, adding to the threats from hunting and habitat loss that already endanger species like the large flying fox.