Watch Rare Endangered Rodrigues and Mauritian Fruit Bats Eating - La Vanille Nature Park Mauritius

I was lucky enough to visit the La Vanille Nature Park in Mauritius. A bonus was their amazing exhibit of Mascarene flying foxes or fruit bats. What a personal surprise!

I was enchanted with watching them hang, feed, squabble...They were so curious as they ate fruit from a flat elevated platform in a rather flat-bellied approach. But they also crawled on the ground to forage for food as well. Not something that we see very often in our Australian flying foxes.

These bats are now endangered or critically endangered, as are so many other species around the world. And all those in the park were bred in captivity within the zoo.

MORE ABOUT MASCARENE FRUIT BATS

Mauritian bats (Pteropus niger or Greater Mascarene flying fox) are found nowhere else in the world. Endemic to Mauritius, there are less than 80,000 alive today. Those numbers are in decline due to continued culling, especially in the last 5 years. Less than 4% of the forests are left removing their natural food source. And farmers blame bats for their crop damage, despite it mainly being due to birds.

Rodrigues bats (Pteropus rodricensis) are critically endangered due to their restricted range. There are less than 20,000 left in the world.

These Mascarene island fruit bats are particularly vulnerable as their reproductive rates are low. Females give birth to just one pup per year, which makes it difficult for populations to recover losses.

Six of the past eight bat extinctions, including the Guam flying fox and lesser Mascarene flying fox, were similar species that succumbed to habitat loss and intense hunting and culling. Historical practices such as harvesting for bat oil didn't help either.

For more videos like this, check out our playlist: "Discover Bats" at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQrN5eNL5RhOIhD8Erg2cFyPrENv1ct-8

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Irene Isaacson (aka ex-iFototravel platform) is a passionate travel and wildlife photographer. Whilst traveling over 1 million miles and across many continents over the last 10-15 years, she has honed her photography, videography, and photojournalism skills.

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