10 FACTS ABOUT FLYING FOXES

URGENT: Over 2,000 Aussie animals and plants are at risk of extinction. Send a message to your local member of parliament, calling for stronger nature laws and adequate funding to protect threatened wildlife and the places they call home.

Flying foxes are fascinating creatures. While most of us are slumbering, they are working the night shift, busily pollinating the native trees and shrubs upon which countless other plant and animal species depend.

To celebrate the successful launch of a new atmospheric cooling system for Bendigo’s flying fox population, we’ve put together 10 fun facts about flying foxes. 

1. They'll travel far for a good meal

In a single night of foraging, these industrious animals can cover up to 30 kilometres. Dipping their heads into flowering plants, they use their long tongues to extract pollen and nectar. The pollen that inadvertently collects on their fur is then transferred to the next flowers they visit.

2. They're fond of camping!

Roosting colonies of flying foxes, known as camps, may contain several thousand individuals. Some camps have been in use for hundreds of years by many generations of flying foxes.

3. They're lightweights

The grey-headed flying fox is one of the smallest of our flying foxes, weighing in at just 300 grams. Being light and manoeuvrable is handy given the vast distances it migrates - up to 1,000km a year up and down Australia's east coast in search of food.

4. Flying fox pups have a special teeth

A young grey-headed flying fox remains with its mother for the first four weeks of life, using specially curved milk teeth to attach to Mum's teat (located under its wing). As her pup gets older, she leaves it behind at night in special creches at the camp, before the pup is weaned at about six months of age and ready to take its first test flights.

5. Sadly, they're vulnerable to extinction

The grey-headed flying fox is vulnerable to extinction, but many other threatened animals and plants also rely on its survival. Scientists believe that by protecting the grey-headed flying fox we can also help to protect six threatened plant species and populations, 57 threatened vegetation communities, and 26 threatened bird and 19 threatened mammal species.

6. The world looks different upside down!

Designed to spend half their life upside down bats have a tendon in their legs with a ratchet-like locking mechanism. This means they don’t have to expend energy and they can just hang there. For them taking flight is as simple as unlocking and dropping.

7. Who's calling?

Grey-headed flying foxes have over 30 different calls all related to specific behaviours.

8. They're not afraid to get a little wet

flying foxes have been seen skimming rivers, creeks or lakes to get their bellies wet, then lick the water off their fur during hot days to cool down young, defending its territory or squabbling over food.

9. They're unique fashionistas in the flying fox world

Keen to spot a grey-headed flying fox? They’re the only flying fox species with a collar of orange/brown fur that fully encircles the head. They are also the only species with fur right down their legs to the toes.

10. Curiously, flying foxes are quite good swimmers.

However, because they can’t take flight from flat ground, they first need to swim to a bank then crawl up a tree in order to gain height and spread their wings to fly again.  

Want to do more to protect flying foxes? Here's how you can get involved.

• Sign the petition and call on the Australian Government to commit to stronger protections for our wildlife and the wild places they call home.
• Discover if threatened animals like the grey-headed flying fox need protection in your local area by using WWF’s My Backyard tool, and find out how well they’re being cared for.
• Tune in to Scat Chat with WWF to learn about the weird and wonderful ways that animal scat is being used to help wildlife conservation.
• Make a donation to help support on-ground conservation work to protect threatened wildlife and their habitat.