Indian Flying Fox

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Flying foxes plays a vital role in pollination of many tropical fruits the most well know of course is bananas. In its natural form bananas are almost exclusive pollinated by fruit bats. The flowers of the inflorescence contains nectar on which the bats feed. The rampant persecution of this species is a result of superstition and half knowledge so much so that about 14 species of flying foxes world over have become extinct. To a generation relying on cultured and hybrid varieties of plants which do not need pollination to fruit, the importance of this creature is perhaps lost out. May be the importance of wild varieties of fruit as genetic reservoirs and exclusive exports to economies why rely on tropical fruits for their survival will bring in some focus on their protection.

500D, 55-250, 250mm, Ae, F7.1, ISO 800, SS1/100. Cropped image made in low light.

Rgds
Roopak.G

[Rajan Kanagasabai]

Beautiful pose and nice eye contact.

Great info Roopak, wish the light was better.

Thanks for sharing

Rajan

[V S Sankar]

Roopakji has managed a picture without climbing all those hair-pin bends to Wayanad!..
It seems he has managed this sitting at home over a cup of coffee!!

Good picture and description Roopakji...

Regards

[Shyamala Kumar]

:)Excellent capture of this elusivise species inspite of the low light. The good eye contact may have been possible because of the low light as species is nocturnal.TFS

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Thanks all for comments.

Shankar sab nice to hear from you after long. You wud have certainly noticed that most of the images i have posted are from in around home, the coffee wud hav been there if i had a lens wit a longer reach......had to leave it and stalk walk into the 'parmbu' to get this....:laugh:

Rgds
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Lovely. There is lot of wildlife around us, especially when we are in the country side. Most of the times in the jungle we wander aimlessly. The limited 2-3 hour morning/evening safari leaves very less time to wait at one place. It is important to wait either near a flowering plant or fruit bearing tree or a water hole, salt lick, carcass etc. Action is bound to happen.

The pose is nice. During my childhood days we had a big garden and I remember pollinating pumpkin and cucumber but never banana. We had lot of banana trees. Not many people actually know the ecological role played by these species. Thanks for this explanatory image.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

Rare behavior captured. Lovely eye contact. I too was not aware that fruit bats help in pollination for bananas. You are really lucky to be surrounded by wildlife :). Thanks for sharing.

[Suraj Sreedhar]

Nice eye contact............Good shot
TFS

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Quite interesting info Roopak, amazing shot this

[Surya Mohapatra]

Never heard that Polination done by Flying Fox..... Thanks for sharing your best information with rare photograph of this activity.

Thanks
Surya Mohapatra