#0372 · 🦊 mammals

Straw-coloured Fruit Bat

🇳🇱 Palmvleerhond ·Eidolon helvum

NTnear threatened 🦊 Mammals 📍 outside Europe

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

The straw-coloured fruit bat ( Eidolon helvum ) is a large fruit bat that is the most widely distributed of all the African megabats. It is quite common throughout its area ranging from the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, across forest and savanna zones of sub-Saharan Africa. They have recently been classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List due to a decreasing population trend. Straw-coloured fruit bats travel in massive colonies of at least 100,000 bats and sometimes...

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 3,548iNaturalist observations
threat NTnear threatened

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
3,548 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Robert Kerr in 1792 (234 years ago).