CreatureData

Black flying fox

Pteropus alecto Temminck, 1837

LCLeast Concernbats

The black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) is a species in the family Pteropodidae, order Chiroptera. Recorded adults weigh 225 g to 643.6 g and live up to 19.7 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

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Quick facts about the black flying fox

Weight
225 g – 643.6 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
19.7 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Frugivoresrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
19.7 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
1.1src for Young per litter or clutch
Litters or clutches a year
1src for Litters or clutches a year
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 black 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 black 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

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

What is the black flying fox?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The black flying fox or black fruit bat (Pteropus alecto) is a bat in the family Pteropodidae. It is among the largest bats in the world, but is considerably smaller than the largest species in its genus, Pteropus. The black flying fox is native to Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. It is not a threatened species.

From the Wikipedia article “Black flying fox” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_flying_fox&oldid=1384655868), 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.

What does the black flying fox sound like?

Andy Mabbett · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Is the black flying fox endangered?

The black 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.

How is the black flying fox classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderChiroptera
  5. familyPteropodidae
  6. genusPteropus
  7. SpeciesPteropus alecto Temminck, 1837

Synonyms Pteropus banakrisi

Other names and names in other languages (20)
  • Black flying-foxEnglish
  • Central flying foxEnglish
  • Central flying-foxEnglish
  • Central flying-foxEnglish
  • الثعلب الطائر الأسودArabic
  • kaloň vábivýCzech
  • Schwarzer FlughundGerman
  • Μαύρη Ιπτάμενη ΑλεπούGreek
  • Zorro Volador NegroSpanish
  • mustalenkkoFinnish
  • Renard volant noirFrench
  • fekete repülőkutyaHungarian
  • Volpe volante neraItalian
  • クロオオコウモリJapanese
  • 검은날여우박쥐Korean
  • Rudawka żałobnaPolish
  • Raposa-Voadora-NegraPortuguese
  • Бавеанская летучая лисицаRussian
  • Kara KanatayakTurkish
  • 中央狐蝠Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the black flying fox

Other species in the same genus Pteropus.

CompareBlack flying fox vs Large flying foxBlack flying fox vs Giant fruit batBlack flying fox vs Livingstone's fruit batBlack flying fox vs Mariana fruit bat

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the black flying fox?

An adult black flying fox weighs 225 g – 643.6 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the black flying fox live?

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

Is the black flying fox endangered?

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

How long does the black flying fox live?

The black flying fox has a recorded lifespan of 19.7 years.

What kind of animal is the black flying fox?

The black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) 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). Black flying fox (Pteropus alecto). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-flying-fox

MLA

“Black flying fox (Pteropus alecto).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-flying-fox.

BibTeX
@misc{black_flying_fox_2026,
  title = {Black flying fox (Pteropus alecto)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-flying-fox},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}