Meet The Biggest Bat In The World, The Golden-Crowned Flying Fox (Video & Pictures)

The giant golden-crowned flying fox gets its species name from the golden fur around the head, in sharp contrast to the black body. Like all other fruit bats, they have no tail. They are among the largest bats, with a wingspan of 1.5–1.7 m (4 ft 10 in–5 ft 7 in) and weighing 0.7–1.2 kg (1.5–2.6 lb). The only other bats with comparable measurements are a few species of Pteropus.

The megabat, contrary to its name, is not always large: the smallest species is 6 cm (2.4 in) long and thus smaller than some microbats. The largest attain a wingspan of 1.7 m (5.6 ft), weighing in at up to 1.6 kg (3.5 lb).[3] Most fruit bats have large eyes, allowing them to orient themselves visually in twilight and inside caves and forests. 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 tongue clicks to navigate in caves).