Flying Foxes or the biggest fruit bats I've ever seen!

One of the many highlights on this trip has been learning about all the wildlife found in this part of the world. We have focused more on learning about the country in general and the many cultures that make it up but are still finding some time for great wildlife viewing. I don't think anything has been more amazing to me that the huge fruit eating bats here. Earlier in Jakarta we saw some that were bigger than anything we have at home and probably at least the size of a magpie or so. In several of the parks though we've seen the much bigger "flying foxes" hanging from trees. From a distance I could tell they were large but since they were all wrapped up in their wings sleeping their size was hard to judge.

That changed a couple of nights ago when we were riding around viewing wildlife from the top of an old land rover at dusk. I spotted something at least the size of an eagle cruising across the sky and tried to get a better look in my binoculars. The lighting was poor but I could see it wasn't a bird I could recognize. Ahmed told me it was a bat and I laughed at the idea. He said during the dry season it wouldn't be uncommon to see maybe 40 or so moving from roost to feeding areas some distance away. I told him the only thing I thought might get that big were flying foxes and that's not a local term he uses so we went back to looking for larger mammals with hooves. A few minutes later Laurie and I got a clear look at another mystery flyer nearly overhead and there was no mistaking this one for anything other than a bat the size of heron or egret! We haven't been able to get a photo of one in flight yet but I'll never forget the silhouetted views I've had here now. Spending a little time reading up on them tonight I see that they can have wing spans approaching five feet across (!)  and weigh several kilos (!!) or more as information is lacking on some species. We did see a fair number of smaller fruit bats in cages at the bird market where they were for sale as food most likely but some are also kept as pets...

I'm not surprised to find that many species of flying foxes/fruit bats aren't doing well. At best they are tolerated but often they're seen as competing with humans for food in this part of the world. There are bat conservation efforts under way in some areas but I haven't come across any work going on in Indonesia yet. 

Flying "fox" fruit bats roosting at the Bogor Botanical Garden near Jakarta