CreatureData

Great flying fox

Pteropus neohibernicus Peters, 1876

LCLeast Concernbats

The great flying fox (Pteropus neohibernicus) is a species in the family Pteropodidae, order Chiroptera. Recorded adults weigh 966.8 g to 1.02 kg and live up to 9.9 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the great flying fox

Weight
966.8 g – 1.02 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
9.9 yearssrc for Lifespan
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 great 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 great 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 great flying fox?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The great flying fox (Pteropus neohibernicus), also known as the greater flying fox or Bismarck flying fox, is a species of megabat in the genus Pteropus, found throughout lowland areas of New Guinea and in the Bismarck Archipelago. Conflicting evidence suggests that its closest relative is either the spectacled flying fox or, jointly, the Pelew and insular flying foxes. Two subspecies are recognized. At up to 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) in weight, it is among the heaviest bats in the world and the largest bat in Melanesia. It is a gregarious animal which roosts with hundreds or thousands of individuals. In part due to its wide variation in color, it has many taxonomic synonyms, including Pteropus degener, Pteropus papuanus, and Pteropus sepikensis. It may forage during the day or night in search of fruit, including figs or fruits from the family Sapotaceae. It is considered a least-concern species by the IUCN, though its numbers have been negatively impacted by what appeared to be a disease, as well as by hunting for bushmeat that occurs across its range.

From the Wikipedia article “Great flying fox” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_flying_fox&oldid=1355690108), 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 great flying fox endangered?

The great 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 great flying fox classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderChiroptera
  5. familyPteropodidae
  6. genusPteropus
  7. SpeciesPteropus neohibernicus Peters, 1876
Other names and names in other languages (19)
  • Bismarck flying-foxEnglish
  • Bismarck flying-foxEnglish
  • Giant flying foxEnglish
  • Great flying fox.English
  • Great flying-foxEnglish
  • Greater flying foxEnglish
  • Greater flying foxEnglish
  • kaloň BismarckůvCzech
  • BismarckflughundGerman
  • Zorro Volador De BismarckSpanish
  • ruskolenkkoFinnish
  • Volpe volante delle BismarckItalian
  • ビズマークオオコウモリJapanese
  • 큰날여우박쥐Korean
  • 비스마르크날여우박쥐Korean
  • Rudawka dużaPolish
  • Grande-raposa-voadoraPortuguese
  • Бисмаркская летучая лисицаRussian
  • 俾斯麥狐蝠Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the great flying fox

Other species in the same genus Pteropus.

CompareGreat flying fox vs Large flying foxGreat flying fox vs Giant fruit batGreat flying fox vs Livingstone's fruit batGreat flying fox vs Mariana fruit bat

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the great flying fox?

An adult great flying fox weighs 966.8 g – 1.02 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the great flying fox live?

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

Is the great flying fox endangered?

The great 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 great flying fox live?

The great flying fox has a recorded lifespan of 9.9 years.

What kind of animal is the great flying fox?

The great flying fox (Pteropus neohibernicus) 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.

Embed a card for this animal on your own site

Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.

Preview the card

APA

CreatureData. (2026). Great flying fox (Pteropus neohibernicus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-flying-fox

MLA

“Great flying fox (Pteropus neohibernicus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-flying-fox.

BibTeX
@misc{great_flying_fox_2026,
  title = {Great flying fox (Pteropus neohibernicus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-flying-fox},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}