Spectacled Flying-fox
Pteropus conspicillatus
They act as 'forest gardeners', capable of dispersing seeds over dozens of kilometers in a single night, maintaining genetic diversity in fragmented rainforests.
- Scientific name
- Pteropus conspicillatus
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Mammalia › Chiroptera › Pteropodidae › Pteropus
- IUCN Red List status
- Endangered
- Population trend
- decreasing
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Tropical rainforests, wet sclerophyll forests, and mangrove swamps.
- Diet
- Frugivorous and nectarivorous, feeding on rainforest fruits (especially figs) and blossoms of Eucalyptus and Melaleuca species.
- Range
- Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia
- Size
- Wingspan of 1 to 1.2 meters, weighing 500 to 1000 grams.
- Lifespan
- 12-15 years in the wild
- Active
- nocturnal
- Threats
- Habitat loss from land clearing, extreme heatwave events caused by climate change, disturbance at roosting camps, and entanglement in fruit netting.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless unless handled. Never touch a flying-fox, even if injured, due to the risk of Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV). Keep a safe distance of at least 5 meters. If bitten or scratched, wash the wound immediately with soap and water for 5 minutes and seek urgent medical attention for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.
The spectacled flying fox ( Pteropus conspicillatus ), also known as the spectacled fruit bat , is a megabat that lives in Australia's north-eastern regions of Queensland. It is also found in New Guinea and on the offshore islands including Woodlark Island, Alcester Island, Kiriwina, and Halmahera.
Photo: Joseph Morlan, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist
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