- Asiatic lion
- Aye-aye
- Black howler monkey
- Black lion tamarin
- Black rat
- Brown rat, Norway rat
- Brush-tailed bettong
- Capybara
- Common squirrel monkey
- De Brazza's Monkey
- Geoffroy's marmoset
- Dwarf mongoose
- Goeldi's monkey
- Giant jumping rat
- Golden-headed lion tamarin
- Golden lion tamarin
- Grey mouse lemur
- Javan langur
- Lac Alaotra gentle lemur, Bandro
- Lion-tailed macaque
- Livingstone's fruit bat
- Mongoose lemur
- White-faced saki
- Naked mole rat
- North American river otter
- Okapi
- Owl monkey
- Pygmy hippopotamus
- Pygmy slow loris
- Red panda
- Red ruffed lemur
- Ring-tailed lemur
- Sand cat
- Slender-tailed meerkat
- South American fur seal
- South American tapir
- Southern pudu
- Spiny mouse
- Two-toed sloth
- Water vole
- Western lowland gorilla
Livingstone's fruit bat
Country: Comoros
Scientific name: Pteropus livingstonii
Continent: Africa
Diet: Fruits - frugivore, nectar - nectarivore,
Food & feeding: Herbivore
Habitats: Tropical rainforest, tropical dry forest
Conservation status: Critically Endangered
Relatives: Vampire bat, Fishing bat
Description: These large red-eyed bats have a wingspan of about 140 cm, yet weighing only 700 grammes. Fruit bats are sometimes called flying foxes, due to their dog-like muzzles and the soft, thick and often reddish fur that covers their head and bodies. Bats are warm-blooded and feed their young on milk. They fly using their webbed fingers, their scientific name Chiroptera is Greek for "hand-wing". The Megachiroptera (big hand-wing) are the flying foxes and fruit bats, which come only from Africa, Asia and Australasia. Apart from the Rousettus spp which click their tongues, the fruit bats do not use echolocation. The Microchiroptera (small hand-wing) tend to be small and use high-pitched ultrasonic sonar to navigate and find prey. There are about 825 different kinds, specialised to eat a wide variety of food, nectar, blood, fish, frogs, lizards, birds, insects and even other bats. The smallest is Kitti's hog-nosed bat which can weigh as little as 2 grams.
Lifestyle: Like their name suggests these are bats that eat fruit. During the day time they roost at the tops of tall trees, occasionally stirring to squabble with their neighbours. As evening approaches they become more active. Towards dusk, they leave their roost trees and fly off in search of trees laden with ripe fruits, on which they gorge themselves. By morning, they arrive back at their roost trees, where they will spend much of the day hanging upside down from the branches.
The new series of Saving Planet Earth highlights wildlife conservation issues around the world and raises funds to support crucial conservation projects.
We have proposed the conservation of the Livingstone’s fruit bat for the second series of ‘Saving Planet Earth’ project because of the importance of the bats’ habitat to the people of the Comores. There is immense pressure on the tropical forests of Anjouan and Moheli, where the bats live. We are working with local communities, the government and local NGOs to devise land management plans that will lead to ‘sustainable development’. The forests are precious as resources for water retention, non-timber forest products and to prevent land erosion, yet there is also a high demand to use the land for growing food and cash crops. Finding this balance won’t be easy, but we confident that – with enough support – solutions can be found between the key stakeholders. It won’t only be the bats who benefit, but the people who depend on the land for their livelihood.
Bristol Zoo Gardens gratefully acknowledges the support of Airbus for its Livingstone Fruit Bat project. It is hoped that visitors to the Zoo will learn about the similarities and differences between animal and mechanical flight, and also how Airbus makes use of the latest materials and structures to produce the world’s most modern airliners.
