A Philippine fruit bat has the longest forearms of any bat alive
The giant golden-crowned flying fox of the Philippines can weigh 1.4 kilograms and spread its wings up to 1.7 metres, and its forearm, at up to 215 millimetres, is the longest recorded in any bat. This fig-eating giant is now endangered by forest loss and hunting.
Found only in the Philippines, Acerodon jubatus is a megabat, one of the fruit-eating bats. The English sailor William Dampier described it in his 1697 account of sailing around the world, but it was formally named in 1831 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz from a specimen collected on Luzon during Otto von Kotzebue's expedition. Its species name means crested or maned. It was first placed in the genus Pteropus, whose members it closely resembles, before becoming the type species of the new genus Acerodon in 1837.
Three subspecies are recognised. One, the Panay golden-crowned flying fox, is extinct and was once treated as a separate species, until a 1998 study found nothing in its anatomy to set it apart. Compared with Pteropus bats, this species has smaller canines, larger and more complex cheek teeth and sharper upper incisors, 34 teeth in all. Males are slightly bigger than females.
Only two bats are known to outweigh it: the Indian flying fox, up to 1.6 kilograms, and the great flying fox, up to 1.45. Neither matches its forearm, and its wingspan of 1.5 to 1.7 metres at least equals the Indian species'. It feeds mainly on figs and some leaves, foraging at night and spending the day in tree roosts that can hold thousands of bats, often shared with the large flying fox. Females bear a single pup each year between April and June. Eagles and other raptors, reticulated pythons and people all prey on it.
Deforestation and hunting for bushmeat have made it endangered. Philippine and international law ban hunting and trading it, but enforcement is weak. Even at better-guarded roosts, tourists sometimes deliberately disturb the sleeping bats during the day.
Source: Giant golden-crowned flying fox
