Description
English: Eidolon helvum, Zoological Garden Berlin, Germany
Date 21 April 2006
Source Own work
Author Fritz Geller-Grimm https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Dysmachus
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eidolon_helvum_fg01.JPG

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 massing up to 1 million. Their necks and backs are a yellowish-brown colour, while their undersides are tawny olive or brownish. Order: Chiroptera, Family: Pteropodidae.