Indian Flying-fox

The noise of a few hundred Indian flying-foxes returning to roost after a night of foraging was quite remarkable. I just never anticipated that they would be so large and so loud. The constant squabbling as they attempted to find a suitable place to roost meant I was able to capture some wonderful photos of interaction between neighbours. Also known as the Greater Indian fruit bat, the flying fox is a species of megabat belonging to the Pteropodidae family.

I was on a walk with my guide, Nayana, on the lookout for Sri Lankan butterflies and dragonflies when we encountered these bats just outside Yala National Park. This species can also be found throughout Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India; Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan and lives mainly in forests and is primarily nocturnal, feeding primarily on ripe fruits such as mangoes and bananas.

It has a wing span of between 1.2 and 1.5 meters (4-5 feet).