Geoffroy's Rousette (Rousettus amplexicaudatus) lives in tropical rainforest across Southeast Asia. It feeds on fruit and nectar. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
Fascinating facts about the Geoffroy's Rousette
- Only Old World fruit bats that echolocate, Geoffroy's rousettes click their tongues like tiny sonar guns. Their clicks last just 50 to 100 microseconds, a blink of sound that lets them navigate dark caves. This rapid acoustic pulse. It shows how evolution can turn a mammal's tongue into a high-tech radar system.
- These bats are marathon flyers. They have been known to travel up to 25 km from their roost to foraging trees, and on a single night they can cover more than 38 km in search of fruit, nectar, or pollen. Covering that distance is like flying the length of a small country each evening, spreading seeds far beyond their home caves.
- Measuring just 78-87 mm in body length, Geoffroy's rousettes sport forearms from 82.22 to 86.76 mm, about the width of a credit card. Males are noticeably larger than females, and many sport pale yellow neck tufts. Their brown-grey coats. Widely distributed bat from Myanmar to the Solomon Islands.
- Geoffroy's rousettes can fill a cave like a living stadium. One roost held more than 2,000 bats, but the record-breaking site hosted an estimated 1.8 million individuals.
Sources
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At a glance
RangeSoutheast Asia
HabitatTropical rainforest
DietFruit and nectar
About the Geoffroy's Rousette
In the twilight skies of the tropical forests, the Geoffroy's Rousette takes to the air, its leathery wings beating in a slow, deliberate rhythm as it navigates the dense canopy with ease. With eyes aglow like embers, this fruit bat moves through the world with a quiet purpose, its sensitive nose twitching as it homes in on the sweet scent of ripening fruit, a true master of the nocturnal realm. As it flits from tree to tree, its dark form silhouetted against the fading light, the Geoffroy's Rousette embodies the very essence of the mysterious and often overlooked world of the night.
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