The description of the Black (Pteropus alecto) given in Menkhorst and
Knight is too narrow. They can have quite pronounced eye rings and
collars (all the better to confuse the rest of us). Generally the
alecto is redish while the speccies (Pteropus conspicuous) are
yellower. The speccies are also a generally smaller but this all
relies on one knowing what one is looking at in the first place or
having a number of animals to look at. The two species smell different
too but again, if you don't have a base line it's not much help.
Just to confuse things, blacks and greys have been known to hybridise
and I would not be surprised of the same was true of blacks and
speccies.
The Blacks have moved south at a very fast rate. They are a very
dominant species. It's worth noting that in June, when the bats had
been in the food shortage for about 6 months, several hundred
animals - both blacks and greys - were caught up by the Royal Botanic
Gardens Sydney. The blacks were all in good condition while the greys
were not.
In any mixed camp blacks are reported to roost on the highest branches
or in the 'best' trees. In rehabilitation they are renounced for being
calm and 'bombproof'.
The move south by the blacks is listed as one of the key threatening
processes in the draft National Recovery plan, not that there is a
great deal that can be done to stop it. The blacks appear to be
considerably more sensitive to cold and any animal that has been in
Sydney or further south for any winter period is likely to have very
rounded ears due to frost bite. However, I can't see this as an
impediment to their ongoing world domination.
In contrast the speccies are listed as Vulnerable under the EPBC and
not doing well. If they can maintain their range that would be
exciting, extending it isn't on the cards for them at present. Their
draft Nat Recovery plan is as over due as the greys' but it is a much
shoddier piece of work (in my opinion).
If you are after ID for any bat (big or little) the book to use is Sue
Churchill's Australian Bats. Les Hall has published a guide recently
however it's much less comprehensive (and considerably cheaper).
cheers
storm
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of michael norris
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 5:11 PM
To: david taylor
Cc: Birding-Aus Aus
Subject: Flying-fox ID help please
Just from 'A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia' by Peter
Menkhorst and
Frank Knight it looks more like Spectacled to me because of, in part,
the
colours of the back. The Black seems to have only a rufuous collar
with the
rest of the back, black.
OK Brisbane is out of the range shown for the Spectacled Flying-fox
(in my
2001 copy) but then the Black arrived in Melbourne recently when its
southern limit in 2000 was Brisbane. See
http://www.theage.com.au/national/black-bats-hang-out-at-the-bend-2010
0707-100o9.html
Michael Norris
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
