Fruit Bat

Seen in huge numbers right across Northern Australia the Fruit Bat, or Flying Fox, are the scourge of the Norther fruit farmers.

On dusk every night massive numbers of bats rise from their daytime sleeping places in parks and mangrove swamps to head for plantations, or any other place they can find a tasty sweet treat, which does include their natural diet items like tree blossoms and palm seeds.

Watching the massive swarm of bats, numbering in the thousands, brings to mind Tolkien's tales of Mordor.

And they're not that innocent either, despite the sweet little foxy faces. They are known to carry the deadly Lyssa Virus, a form of rabies, that has a devastating effect on domestic animals and humans, and is transmitted by bites, scratches and handling infected dead animals, including the bat itself.