CreatureData

Big-eared flying fox

Pteropus macrotis Peters, 1867

LCLeast Concernbats

The big-eared flying fox (Pteropus macrotis) is a species in the family Pteropodidae, order Chiroptera. Recorded adults weigh 357 g to 366 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Big-eared flying fox (Pteropus macrotis)
Photo: Naturalis Biodiversity Center · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the big-eared flying fox

Weight
357 g – 366 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Frugivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Active
At night (nocturnal)src for Active
Lifestyle
Arborealsrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the big-eared flying fox live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The big-eared flying fox is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the big-eared flying fox?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The big-eared flying fox (Pteropus macrotis) is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae, larger bats who subsist largely on fruits. The species is distributed across a range in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and islands nearing the Cape York Peninsula at the northeast of Australia, at elevations less than 500 metres and often in coastal mangroves.

From the Wikipedia article “Big-eared flying fox” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big-eared_flying_fox&oldid=1314290132), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the big-eared flying fox endangered?

The big-eared flying fox is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the big-eared flying fox classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderChiroptera
  5. familyPteropodidae
  6. genusPteropus
  7. SpeciesPteropus macrotis Peters, 1867
Other names and names in other languages (15)
  • Big-eared flying fox.English
  • Big-eared flying-foxEnglish
  • Large-eared flying foxEnglish
  • Large-eared flying foxEnglish
  • Large-eared flying-foxEnglish
  • kaloň velkouchýCzech
  • GroßohrflugfuchsGerman
  • Zorro Volador De Orejas GrandesSpanish
  • arusaartenlenkkoFinnish
  • Volpe volante dalle grandi orecchieItalian
  • オオミミオオコウモリJapanese
  • 큰귀날여우박쥐Korean
  • Rudawka wielkouchaPolish
  • Летучая лисица АруRussian
  • 大狐蝠Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the big-eared flying fox

Other species in the same genus Pteropus.

CompareBig-eared flying fox vs Large flying foxBig-eared flying fox vs Giant fruit batBig-eared flying fox vs Livingstone's fruit batBig-eared flying fox vs Mariana fruit bat

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the big-eared flying fox?

An adult big-eared flying fox weighs 357 g – 366 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the big-eared flying fox live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the big-eared flying fox for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the big-eared flying fox endangered?

The big-eared flying fox is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the big-eared flying fox?

The big-eared flying fox (Pteropus macrotis) belongs to the family Pteropodidae in the order Chiroptera.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Big-eared flying fox (Pteropus macrotis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/big-eared-flying-fox

MLA

“Big-eared flying fox (Pteropus macrotis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/big-eared-flying-fox.

BibTeX
@misc{big_eared_flying_fox_2026,
  title = {Big-eared flying fox (Pteropus macrotis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/big-eared-flying-fox},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}