Little red flying-fox

Pteropus scapulatus

In the Sydney region, little red flying-foxes have been recorded at Cabramatta Creek Flying-fox Reserve, Parramatta and Macquarie Fields. They were also recorded in Ku-ring-gai Flying-fox Reserve December/January 1980/81 (Puddicombe R, 1984)

Little red flying-foxes are different from grey-headed and black flying-foxes in many ways:

• Smaller;  less than half the weight
• Fur is red-brown and their wings more translucent
• Feed almost entirely on blossom of eucalypts and melaleucas
• Highly nomadic, following blossoming river redgums along inland rivers or visiting the coast for  a month or two
• Camps can contain hundreds of thousands to a million
• Roost very close together sometimes hanging in clumps from each other
• Mating is between November and January, with a 5-month gestation period, after which a single young is born

More information:
Australian Museum
Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland