Straw-coloured Fruit Bat Eidolon helvum

The Straw-coloured Fruit Bat is a large bat native to sub-Saharan Africa and coastal southwest Arabia. It has pale body fur with a yellow throat (darker orange on males) and a dark face and wings.

Wingspan is some 75cm (30 inches). They live in huge flocks although their numbers are declining, partly through habitat loss and capture for bushmeat. They account for the world's largest migration of mammals when some 10 million gather in Zambia late in the year.

They eat fruit, pollen, nectar, leaves, flowers and bark. They pollinate flowers and disperse seeds and are the key disperser for the African Teak tree (Milicia excelsa).