Megabats are what some people call Flying-foxes. They belong to the Order Megachrioptera which literally means " the big hand wings". They are intelligent flying mammals, relatives of the primitive primates called Flying Lemurs [Which are actually Gliding Animals!].Both Lemurs and Flying-foxes are described as having a "fox like" face.
Megabats are herbivores. They are nectar and pollen feeders and also eat a range of flowers, fruit and certain leaves. In times of food shortage, their diet varies to include unripe fruits. They use their excellent night vision, sense of smell and spatial perception to navigate and find food.
Megabats are important pollinators, particularly of night flowering hardwoods. They help maintain the genetic diversity of the forest. They are also important dispersers of seeds of native trees. Food passes through a flying-fox relatively quickly (around 20 minutes), lightening the load for flight, while naturally dispersing seeds, complete with a little organic fertiliser!
There are three local species of colonial Megabats.
The daytime roosts, called "Camps", are occupied by all three species at some times.
The Black Flying-foxes (Pteropus alectio) are the largest Megabats. They are generally jet black in colour but they may have a mantle of dark brown to orange fur on the back. The legs are free of fur except near the body. Black Flying-foxes are present in the Hervey Bay area throughout the year.
. The Grey Headed Flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is a similar size to the Black Flying-fox. They are a little greyer in colour. The prominent collar of golden to copper yellow fur completely encircles the neck. They also have fur on the legs right down to the toes. They are nomadic, and their numbers in local colonies varies from very few to many thousands.
The Little Red Flying-foxes (Pteropus scapulatus) arrive in spring and summer. Their arrival really does make colonies like the Tooan Tooan Creek Flying-fox Camp, a "mega" bat colony. Aggregations of fifty to one hundred thousand are common. At rare times they arrive by the millions! The Little Red Flying-foxes usually move on after a few weeks in their complex migrations, following the blossoming of night flowering hardwood trees and tea trees [Melaleuca]. The Little Red Flying-foxes are smaller than the other two species, and are covered with reddish to light brown fur. They are easily recognisable in flight because of their semi-transparent wings.
Black & Grey Headed Flying-foxes generally roost at arms length, high in the trees. The Little Red Flying-foxes roost clustered together, often close to the ground. Their combined weight can actually break off quite large branches. The mangroves show vigorous re-growth where they have been previously decimated by Little Red Flying-foxes. Mangroves form a robust forest that gives Flying-foxes protection from land-based predators, as they roost over the mud and water.
The spectacle of many thousands of Megabats rising from the Tooan Tooan Creek Camp at dusk is a truly awesome natural phenomenon. The first to rise are the Little Red Flying-foxes, spiralling around above the colony area, before emerging in orderly streams. Columns of bats, sometimes kilometres long, snake their way toward their chosen feeding grounds. During this summer, January 2010, the flyout of many hundreds of thousands of visiting Little Red Flying-foxes down the esplanade and off to the forests of Fraser Island was marvelled at by locals and tourists alike.
