One of the 8 flying foxes on WAnimals
Mammals · Chiroptera · Pteropodidae
Grey-headed Flying Fox
Pteropus poliocephalus
Vulnerable
At high risk of extinction in the wild over the medium term.
The grey-headed flying fox is the largest bat in Australia, with a wingspan of more than a metre. It is endemic to the eastern strip of the continent and forms daytime colonies of thousands of individuals in trees, increasingly often inside cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. At night it travels tens of kilometres feeding on nectar and fruit, and it is a key pollinator and seed disperser of the eucalypts and the Australian subtropical rainforests. Extreme heatwaves cause mass die-offs.
Weight
600 g – 1 kg
Size
23 cm – 29 cm
Life expectancy
15 years
