---
title: "Straw-coloured Fruit Bat"
description: "Eidolon helvum — Mammiferi. The straw-coloured fruit bat is a large fruit bat that is the most widely distributed of all the African megabats."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/it/animal/straw-coloured-fruit-bat
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Straw-coloured Fruit Bat

> Eidolon helvum — Mammiferi. The straw-coloured fruit bat is a large fruit bat that is the most widely distributed of all the African megabats.

- Scientific name: *Eidolon helvum*
- Category: `mammals` (Mammiferi)
- Habitats: `forest` (Foresta), `savanna` (Savana)
- iNaturalist observations: 3520
- Wikidata: [Q33108](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33108)
- iNaturalist taxon: [40827](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/40827)

## Names

- en: Straw-coloured Fruit Bat
- de: Afrikanischer Palmenflughund
- es: Muercielágo de la Fruta de Color Pajizo
- fr: Roussette paillée africaine
- nl: Palmvleerhond
- pl: Zjawa płowa

## Countries with the most observations

BJ (1857), RW (166), GH (161), NG (135), BF (129), TZ (114), UG (74), ZM (69), CM (61), SN (60), KE (52), MZ (48)

## Summary

The straw-coloured fruit bat is a large fruit bat that is the most widely distributed of all the African megabats. It is quite common throughout its area ranging from the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, across forest and savanna zones of sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List due to a decreasing population trend. Straw-coloured fruit bats travel in massive colonies of at least 100,000 bats and sometimes massing up to 1 million. From October to end of December every year, in the largest migration of mammals on the planet, up to 10 million straw-coloured…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw-coloured_fruit_bat

## Photo

![Straw-coloured Fruit Bat](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/straw-coloured-fruit-bat/medium.jpg)

Photo: Dennis Chanter · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/448116

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/straw-coloured-fruit-bat?lang=it` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).