It’s been a hard day’s night choosing the object of the week. Which animal in our museum has horns like these?

Did you know what last week’s object of the week was?

Malaysian Flying Fox (Pteropus vampyrus)

Well done if you identified the picture last week as a fruit bat; more specifically our Malaysian Flying Fox (Pteropus vampyrus).

This incredible specimen is in the Suborder Megachiroptera (the Mega bats) – and as the name suggests it contains some of the largest bats in the world. Some Pteropus bats have a wing span of 1.5 metres! They are found all over Southeast Asia and feed on fruit, nectar and flowers.

IUCN have listed this species as Near Threatened which means that numbers are declining and it may be threatened with extinction in the near future. The main threats to this animal are overhunting and habitat loss.