Fruit Bat Photo Library

by Yushi Osawa & Keiko Osawa

Barbastella leucomelas pictures were added on May 27th 2011

It was about 20 years ago that we encountered fruit bats on Minami-daito Island in Okinawa prefecture for the first time. That encounter led us to fall in love with fruit bats. They have captured our hearts and minds with large eyes and fluffy fur. We visited many islands in Okinawa and Kagoshima and the Ogasawara islands to take pictures of all species and subspecies of fruit bats in Japan.
We have also traveled overseas to see fruit bats. In Australia we saw ten thousands fruit bats flying out at dusk. In American Samoa we saw fruit bats soaring during the day against the blue sky.
There are 186 species of fruit bats in 42 genera. Because many of them live in Africa and South East Asia there are often difficulties in traveling to see them. But we are going to keep up our trips. We also want to see fruit bats in the family Phyllostomidae in Central and South America. In total, our target is 263 herbivorous bats. And we also look for as many other types of wildlife as possible.