Elizabeth PennisiAustralia’s biggest bats—known as flying foxes—are among the world’s most restless nomads, according to a new study.
Just how restless? The most peripatetic can journey up to 6000 kilometers per year, much farther than any land mammal and close to the distances covered by some whales and migrating birds.This continent’s flying foxes can weigh up to 1 kilogram with meter-wide wing spans.
But instead of hunting like other bats, they make nightly forays to flowers in search of nectar, pollen, and seeds. By day, they roost by the thousands in trees.Researchers had thought these bats stayed local, loyal to a particular roost.