page_title: Pteropus
section_title: Food
hierarchical_section_title: Pteropus / Relationship to people / Food
caption_attribution_description: English: Paniki (Fruit Bat) meat cooked in spicy Rica green chilli pepper. An exotic Manado (Minahasan) dish. Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Bahasa Indonesia: Paniki (kelelawar Buah) dimasak rica-rica cabai hijau. Masakan Manado (Minahasa) yang eksotik. Manado, Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia.
context_page_description: Pteropus is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names.
  They live in the tropics and subtropics of Asia, Australia, East Africa, and some oceanic islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
  There are at least 60 extant species in the genus.
  Flying foxes eat fruit and other plant matter, and occasionally consume insects as well. They locate resources with their keen sense of smell.
  Most, but not all, are nocturnal. They navigate with keen eyesight, as they cannot echolocate.
  They have long life spans and low reproductive outputs, with females of most species producing only one offspring per year. Their slow life history makes their populations vulnerable to threats such as overhunting, culling, and natural disasters. Six flying fox species have been made extinct in modern times by overhunting. Flying foxes are often persecuted for their real or perceived role in damaging crops. They are ecologically beneficial by assisting in the regeneration of forests via seed dispersal. They benefit ecosystems and human interests by pollinating plants.
context_section_description: Many flying foxes species are killed for bushmeat. The bushmeat harvest is often unsustainable, often resulting in severe population decline or local extinction. Flying foxes are killed and sold for bushmeat in several countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, China, Fiji, and Guam. Flying fox consumption is particularly common in countries with low food security and lack of environmental regulation. In some cultures in the region, however, eating flying fox meat is taboo. In Namoluk, locals are repulsed by the idea of eating flying foxes because the flying foxes urinate on themselves. In predominately Muslim regions such as much of Indonesia, flying foxes are rarely consumed because of halal dietary restrictions.
  North Sulawesi has the greatest demand for flying fox bushmeat. Despite being in Muslim-majority Indonesia, North Sulawesi is predominately Christian; therefore, many locals do not follow halal guidelines prohibiting flying fox consumption. In Manado, most local people consume flying fox meat at least once a month. The frequency of flying fox consumption increases tenfold around holidays.
  Locals believe that "unique meat" from undomesticated animals should be served on special occasions to "enliven the atmosphere." Suggestions to make the flying fox bushmeat trade more sustainable include enforcing a quota system for harvesting, encouraging hunters to release female and juvenile individuals, and providing economic alternatives to those who make a living selling flying fox bushmeat.
  In Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, consumption of the Mariana fruit bat exposes locals to the neurotoxin beta-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) which may later lead to neurodegenerative diseases. BMAA may become biomagnified in humans who consume flying foxes; flying foxes are exposed to BMAA by eating cycad fruits.
caption: An Indonesian dish made with Paniki (flying fox meat)
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