It is hard to guess what a Straw-coloured fruit bat weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) on average weights 253 grams (0.56 lbs).
The Straw-coloured fruit bat is from the family Pteropodidae (genus: Eidolon). It is usually born with about 48 grams (0.11 lbs). They can live for up to 21.75 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 18.2 cm (0′ 8″). On average, Straw-coloured fruit bats can have babies 1 times per year with a litter size of 1.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) is a large fruit bat that is the most widely distributed of all the African megabats. It is quite common throughout its area ranging from the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, across forest and savanna zones of sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List due to a decreasing population trend. Straw-coloured fruit bats travel in massive colonies of at least 100,000 bats and sometimes massing up to 1 million. From October to end of December every year, in the largest migration of mammals on the planet, up to 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats congregate in Kasanka National Park, Zambia, roosting in a 2 hectare area of Mushitu forest each day. This migration was only discovered in 1980. Their necks and backs are a yellowish-brown colour, while their undersides are tawny olive or brownish.
Animals of the same family as a Straw-coloured fruit bat
We found other animals of the Pteropodidae family:
- Buettikofer’s epauletted fruit bat with a weight of 135 grams
- Angolan rousette with a weight of 68 grams
- Moss-forest blossom bat with a weight of 20 grams
- Indonesian short-nosed fruit bat with a weight of 59 grams
- Ryukyu flying fox with a weight of 491 grams
- Indian flying fox with a weight of 822 grams
- Big-eared flying fox with a weight of 365 grams
- Livingstone’s fruit bat with a weight of 733 grams
- Ontong Java flying fox with a weight of 232 grams
- Black-bearded flying fox with a weight of 872 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Straw-coloured fruit bat
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Eidolon helvum:
- Western barred bandicoot bringing 230 grams to the scale
- Halmahera naked-backed fruit bat bringing 218 grams to the scale
- Desert pocket gopher bringing 206 grams to the scale
- Amazon weasel bringing 268 grams to the scale
- Felou gundi bringing 205 grams to the scale
- Tawny tuco-tuco bringing 280 grams to the scale
- Shiny guinea pig bringing 283 grams to the scale
- Orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel bringing 227 grams to the scale
- Eastern woodrat bringing 252 grams to the scale
- Strong tuco-tuco bringing 233 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Straw-coloured fruit bat
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Straw-coloured fruit bat:
- Richardson’s ground squirrel with a size of 21.1 cm (0′ 9″)
- Ihering’s Atlantic spiny rat with a size of 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)
- Molina’s hog-nosed skunk with a size of 21.1 cm (0′ 9″)
- Desert hedgehog with a size of 18.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Sado mole with a size of 16.3 cm (0′ 7″)
- Gray tree rat with a size of 19.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Camas pocket gopher with a size of 19.9 cm (0′ 8″)
- Eastern chipmunk with a size of 14.6 cm (0′ 6″)
- Big-headed African mole-rat with a size of 20.9 cm (0′ 9″)
- Stein’s rat with a size of 17.1 cm (0′ 7″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Straw-coloured fruit bat
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Straw-coloured fruit bat:
- Long-tailed chinchilla
- Greater Asiatic yellow bat
- White-footed sportive lemur
- Alpine ibex
- Rodrigues flying fox
- Grant’s golden mole
- Black capuchin
- Rüppell’s pipistrelle
- Hirola
- Bougainville monkey-faced bat
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Straw-coloured fruit bat
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Straw-coloured fruit bat:
- Common wallaroo with an average maximal age of 24 years
- Barbary sheep with an average maximal age of 21 years
- Commerson’s dolphin with an average maximal age of 18 years
- Koala with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Southern hairy-nosed wombat with an average maximal age of 24.5 years
- Six-banded armadillo with an average maximal age of 18.75 years
- White-tailed deer with an average maximal age of 23 years
- Asian golden cat with an average maximal age of 18 years
- Platypus with an average maximal age of 22 years
- Japanese serow with an average maximal age of 18.5 years