Little red flying fox  (Pteropus scapulatus)

Range

Found throughout Australia in Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, but particularly abundant in the north (2) (3). Occasionally individuals have been seen as far away as Papua New Guinea, and there has also been one sighting of an individual in New Zealand (3).

View a distribution map for this species at UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Habitat

During the day, colonies known as ‘camps’ can sometimes have as many as one million bats. The little red flying fox roosts in the trees of a broad range of habitats including eucalypt forests, woodland, paperbark swamps, mangroves and bamboo thickets (4). This species is nomadic, venturing from coastal to rainforest to dry inland areas (8), following the seasonally varying flowering and fruiting cycles of different trees (2) (4).

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