The Large Flying Fox Pteropus vampyrus and the Indian Flying Fox Pteropus giganteus are the world's largest bats. We have seen Large Flying Foxes several
times in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia but never had a chance
to encounter Indian Flying Foxes other than in zoos.We have heard that the Indian Flying Fox is common in Sri Lanka but the country's lengthy civil war made us think twice to go there. It has been two and a half years since the civil war ended on May 18th in 2009. So, now is the time to visit Sri Lanka. We did research on the bats of Sri Lanka through the Internet and found there was a big colony of Large Flying Fox in Peradeniya Botanical Gardens in Kandy, a colony of the Leschenault's Rousette Rousettus leschenault in a rock cleft at Isurumuniya temple in Anuradhapura and a kind of sheath-tailed bat on the ceiling of Isurumuniya temple. We also read that Indian Flying Foxes were often electrocuted while hanging on power lines in many places around Sri Lanka.
The Indian Flying Fox is also the world's northernmost inhabitant among flying foxes as it inhabits the northern part of the border between India and Pakistan.
An Indian Flying Fox in Neo Park Okinawa, Nago, Okinawa( left)
A colony of the Indian Flying Fox in Peradeniya Botanical Gardens in Kandy(right)
