Fruit bats and the plants they feed from depend on each other in a mutualistic relationship. The plants provide fruit, juice, and nectar that nourish the bats. The bats spread the plants’ pollen and seeds, helping them reproduce.

What They Eat
Many kinds of fruit including figs, mangoes, and dates, are favored foods of the fruit bat.

Where They Live
Fruit bats thrive in a variety of habitats, from forest to savanna and from sea level to mountain, as long as they can find food and shelter.

What They Do
When they are just “hanging out,” fruit bats find protection from predators and weather in caves, trees, buildings, and other dark, hidden places. When they are active, they emerge from shelter to fly and forage for fruit, sometimes up to 25 miles from their roost.

How They’re Doing
Although people occasionally kill them for food or to protect crops, fruit bats for the most part are widespread and appear to be plentiful.

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Fruit Bat

Fruit Bats

Animals that eat fruit are called frugivores.

Many fruit-bearing plants in the world depend on fruit bats to spread their pollen so they can reproduce.

Bats are mammals, just like people, cats, and cows. They have fur, give birth to young rather than lay eggs, and feed their young milk from their bodies.

The huge African baobab tree depends on fruit bats for pollination.

Minnesota has seven native species of bats. Minnesota bats eat insects rather than fruit.

Some fruit bat colonies are home to more than a million individual bats.

Support African forests and the African fruit bat.

Because fruit bats depend on plants for food, healthy habitat is important to them. Egyptian fruit bats and Ruwenzori fruit bats seem to be thriving throughout their range. Populations of straw-colored fruit bats, however, appear to be declining in some places. These bats are sometimes killed for food and medicine.

You can help fruit bats and other living creatures by supporting programs that protect habitat for wildlife.

Range and Habitat
Fruit bats are found in Africa and southwestern Asia. They are not limited to one particular type of habitat. Rather, they can be found in many areas where fruiting plants and shelters such as caves or old buildings are readily available.

Description
Fruit bats have large brown eyes and soft fur. A pointed snout makes them look a little bit like dogs. Their long fingers form ribbing for a thin flap of skin that stretches to their feet. Fruit bats vary in size depending on the species.

Habits and Adaptations
Different kinds of fruit bats are active at different times of the day or night. Broad flaps of skin stretched from wrists to hind legs make it possible for these mammals to fly when they flap their front limbs. During their active times, they fly through the air in search of fruit to eat. When they are not flying about, they hang out upside down in groups in sheltered places. Their sense of smell helps them find fruit.

Eat and Be Eaten
Figs, dates, and other soft fresh fruits are favored foods of fruit bats. Some bats also drink nectar and occasionally nibble on leaves. People, cats, raptors, snakes, and weasel-like animals eat fruit bats.

Life History
Fruit bats tend to breed once or twice a year. Four to nine months after mating, a single pup is born—though occasionally these bats will have twins. Pups can weigh less than an ounce. The mother cares for the young until they are old enough to fly and find their own food at several months of age. Many fruit bats live less than 10 to 15 years in the wild, but they have been known to live 20 years or more in human care.

Conservation Notes
Adapted to a variety of habitats, fruit bats for the most part are not considered endangered or threatened. People help fruit bats by creating parks and preserves that protect habitat for these and other wild animals. Additional efforts to protect a variety of plant species and native habitats around the world will help these animals thrive. Further Information
The three species of fruit bats on exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo share many traits. All eat fruit. All live in Africa. All sleep hanging upside down while clinging to a roost. Each is unique in some ways, too. The Egyptian fruit bat uses a system like sonar, called echolocation, to find its way around and hunt. The straw-colored fruit is larger than the other two species. The Ruwenzori fruit bat is shaggy and is more active during the day than at night.