Today’s #megafauna is the goldencrowned flying fox–a species of #megabat that lives in the Philippines. Its diet consists entirely of fruit, and it plays an important role in seed distribution in the forest ecosystem. This bat also happily lives near human settlements, as long as hunting and industrial forest disturbance are kept at bay.

Weighing in at under 3 pounds, the flying fox nevertheless has a wingspan of nearly 6 feet. These massive wings help the nocturnal bat to cover great distances in search of food–sometimes as many as 25 miles per night. As it flies, the bat relies on its excellent eyesight–not echolocation!–to spot food.

Flying foxes can congregate into huge colonies, sometimes recorded as numbering in the tens of thousands. This protects them from cold and predators. Unfortunately, the biggest threat to the flying fox’s survival is human activity. 90% of old-growth forests in the Philippines have been destroyed, and flying foxes are still hunted for meat. These two factors have driven the flying fox population down to 10-20,000 individuals, and the species remains endangered.