(Pteropus conspicillatus)]] Megabats constitute the suborder Megachiroptera, family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera (bats). They are also called fruit bats, old world fruit bats, or flying foxes.
Their sense of smell is excellent. In contrast to the microbats, the fruit bats do not use echolocation (with one exception, the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus egyptiacus, which uses high-pitched clicks to navigate in caves).
Frugivorous bats aid the distribution of plants (and therefore, forests) by carrying the fruits with them and spitting the seeds or eliminating them elsewhere. Nectarivores actually pollinate visited plants. They bear long tongues that are inserted deep into the flower; pollen thereby passed to the bat is then transported to the next blossom visited, pollinating it. This relationship between plants and bats is a form of mutualism known as chiropterophily. Examples of plants that benefit from this arrangement include the baobabs of the genus Adansonia and the sausage tree (Kigelia).
However, there have been other views, and a vigorous debate persists to this date. For example, in the 1980s and 1990s, some researchers proposed (based primarily on the similarity of the visual pathways) that the Megachiroptera were in fact more closely affiliated with the primates than the Microchiroptera, with the two groups of bats having therefore evolved flight via convergence (see Flying primates theory). However, a recent flurry of genetic studies confirms the more longstanding notion that all bats are indeed members of the same clade, the Chiroptera. Other studies have recently suggested that certain families of microbats (possibly the horseshoe bats, mouse-tailed bats and the false vampires) are evolutionarily closer to the fruit bats than to other microbats.
FAMILY PTEROPODIDAE
Researchers tested fruit bats for the presence of the Ebola virus between 2001 and 2003. Three species of bats tested positive for Ebola, but had no symptoms of the virus. This indicates that the bats may be acting as a reservoir for the virus. Of the infected animals identified during these field collections, immunoglobulin G (IgG) specific for Ebola virus was detected in Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti, and Myonycteris torquata.
The epidemical Marburg virus was found in 2007 in specimens of the Egyptian fruit bat, confirming the suspicion that this species may be a reservoir for this dangerous virus.
Fruit bats are considered a delicacy by South Pacific Islanders, where consumption has been suggested as a possible cause of Lytico-Bodig disease.
Other diseases which can be carried by fruit bats include Australian bat lyssavirus and Henipavirus (notably Hendra virus and Nipah virus), both of which can prove fatal to humans.
In his documentaries British broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough has several times featured segments of the Giant Fruit Bat. Most notably in the third episode of BBC's Life series titled "Mammals"; In the segment Attenborough studies the annual journey the Fruit Bats of Congo travels to reach a particular swamp in Zambia. As many as ten million bats gather here every year. The reason is a huge blossom of fruit which the bats completely strip from the trees in a matter of days.
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