The black-eared flying fox, species ''Pteropus melanotus'', is a bat of the family Pteropodidae (megabats). Also known as Blyth's flying fox, it is found on the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

and

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian s ...

(India), and in

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

(

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

).Hutson, A.M., Kingston, T., James, D., Lumsden, L., Molur, S. & Srinivasulu, C. 2008. Pteropus melanotus. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. . Retrieved 6 February 2011. A population on Christmas Island, which is critically endangered, has been placed as a subspecies of this population. The conservation and taxonomic status of that population was later re-established as a distinct species, the Christmas Island fruit-bat '' Pteropus natalis.''John CZ Woinarski, Samantha Flakus, David J. James, Brendan Tiernan, Gemma J. Dale and Tanya Detto (2014
"An island-wide monitoring program demonstrates decline in reporting rate for the Christmas Island flying-fox, ''Pteropus melanotus natalis''."
''Acta Chiropterologica'', 16.1 (2014): 117-127.

Distribution and habitat

The black-eared flying fox is native to various island groups in the Indo-Pacific. These include the

, the

Mentawai Islands Mentawai may refer to: * Mentawai Islands * Mentawai Strait * Mentawai people * Mentawai language The Mentawai language is an Austronesian language, spoken by the Mentawai people of the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Dialects Acco ...

. It mostly roosts in large colonies in forests near the coast, especially in mangrove areas.

Biology

The black-eared flying fox is more diurnal than most bats, emerging from its roosts before dusk and feeding on the fruits and flowers of at least twenty-six species of forest trees at least ten of which are

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

. A single young is born annually.

Status

The black-eared flying fox faces a number of threats. Destruction of its forest habitat reduces the availability of roosting sites and the animal is hunted by man for food. The crushed bones of this species are used in traditional medicine to relieve asthma symptoms. However, it has proved adaptable to changes in diet and now feeds on a number of introduced species of plant. The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has rated this species as " Vulnerable".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black-Eared Flying Fox Pteropus Bats of South Asia Bats of Southeast Asia Bats of India Bats of Indonesia Fauna of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Vulnerable fauna of Asia Mammals described in 1863 Taxa named by Edward Blyth Taxonomy articles created by Polbot