THE BATS OF THE WILDLIFE CENTER

The Wildlife Center is most famously known for our wonderful family of bats. We currently house three different species of Fruit bats (Megachiroptera, also known as flying Foxes)  



EGYPTIAN FRUIT BATS

Our first bats ever obtained were from The Giza Zoo in Cairo Egypt and The Toronto Zoo in Canada. Our adorable Rousettus Aegyptiacus or Egyptian fruit bats, as seen in the photo to the left can melt anyone's heart! Looking just like the literary character "Stellaluna", these adorable bats are the first bats The Wildlife center ever obtained and used in our first public appearances over 25 years ago! 

They are primarily fruit and nectar eaters they are very important seed dispersers to the ecosystems where they are found -mostly on areas scattered throughout Africa, India and Pakistan.

Although larger than their American insect-eating cousins, these fruit bats are on the smaller side of the mega bat species. They have a body length of around 6 inches with a wingspan of almost two feet . They are also the only known Megabats that use  echolocation!  The Egyptian Fruit Bats have keen eyesight, but also rely on echolocation, as the areas that they are inhabit are dark and dense (i.e., caves and very heavily forested areas).  These bats mature at about 1 year of age and the gestation period in females is approximately 115 days.