Chiroptera are an order commonly known as bats. With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out digits covered with a thin membrane or patagium.
Chiroptera is second largest order of mammals after rodents, comprising about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with over 1,400 species. These were traditionally divided into two suborders: the largely fruit-eating megabats, and the echolocating microbats.
Most bats are nocturnal, and many roost in caves or other refuges; it is uncertain whether bats have these behaviours to escape predators. Bats are present throughout the world, with the exception of extremely cold regions. They are important in their ecosystems for pollination and dispersing seeds; many tropical plants depend entirely on bats for these services.
Bats provide humans with some direct benefits, at the cost of some disadvantages. Bat dung has been mined as guano from caves and used as fertiliser. Bats consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides and other insect management measures. Some bats are also predators of mosquitoes, suppressing the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases. Bats are sometimes numerous enough and close enough to human settlements to serve as tourist attractions, and they are used as food across Asia and the Pacific Rim. Fruit bats are however frequently considered pests by fruit growers. Due to their physiology, bats acts as a natural reservoir of many pathogens, such as rabies; and since they are highly mobile, social, and long-lived, they can readily spread disease among themselves. If humans interact with bats, these traits become potentially dangerous to humans.
Source: Wikipedia
Family Pteropodidae
Subfamily Pteropodinae
Tribe Pteropodini
Pteropus alecto (Black flying-foxes) (Kakadu NP, NT, Australia)
Pteropus melanotus ssp. natalis (Christmas Island flyfox) (Christmas Island, WA, Australia)
Pteropus lylei (Lyle’s Flying-Fox) (Khao Sok NP, Thailand)
