Flying Fox | Heavenly Sword Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Flying Fox is a high-ranking member in King Bohan's army, signifying a prolonged relationship between the two. This is evident in Nariko's first battle with him, in which he sends multiple waves of soldiers to handle the heroine, to no avail. It is later revealed that it was Flying Fox who murdered Kai's mother, as well as possibly her entire clan, prior to the events of Heavenly Sword. This is shown by Kai's reaction of horror upon seeing Flying Fox after retrieving the Heavenly Sword for Nariko. Personality Edit Flying Fox is shown to have a chilling, almost psychopathic disregard for life. On multiple occasions througout the game, he is shown to have performed a heinous act of violence towards an innocent person: once in a flashback by Kai when he killed her mother, and another when he attempts to hang Kai during his and Nariko's second boss battle. Flying Fox appears to wield two identical curved swords, which appear to be the same as the ones on his back. He used said swords in multiple attacks, including to fly into the air in the first boss battle.

He also possesses the ability to produce doppelgangers of himself, evident in the second boss battle . His motto is "Style!", proclaiming that Nariko does not have of enough it after their first encounter and promising to fight her again when she does. Death Edit After escaping Nariko in the first battle between the two, Flying Fox runs into the heroine again, this time in his home, a large birdcage at the end of a long road in the mountains. As Nariko nears the cage, Fox proceeds to loop a noose around Kai's neck and hang her, much to Nariko's horror. Nariko flies into a rage, beating Flying Fox back in three different intervals of fighting. It is after the third period that Kai awakens, having been knocked unconscious by the hanging. She proceeds to raise her crossbow, at which point the player has a limited amount of time to shoot Flying Fox. If the shot is successful, an arrow will pierce Fox's skull. As he falls to his death, his final words are, "Style.

That had style..." Nope Creature of the Day: Black Flying Fox Posted on: January 20th, 2015 by Megan Archey Have you seen the above picture floating around the internet? If you think it is a fake or photo-shopped, you are mistaken. Our “Nope Creature of the Day” pictured is the Black Flying Fox, a giant bat native to Australia and Indonesia. It is one of the largest bat species in the world and can have a wing span of up to 1 meter. If that is not terrifying enough, during the day, the bat will stay in “roosts,” or large colonies consisting of tens of thousands of bats. Although they look quite scary and threatening, this specific type of bat mainly feeds on pollen and nectar. The South might have some crazy insects, but we can be grateful that the Black Flying Fox is not prominent here in the states. A roost of Black Flying Foxes Importance of flying-foxes (Department of Environment and Heritage Protection) Department of Environment and Heritage Protection Search Department of Environment and Heritage Protection Site navigation Future of flying-foxes Flying-foxes are crucial to keeping native forests healthy. They play an important role in dispersing seeds and pollinating flowering plants.

Because flying-foxes are highly mobile, seeds can be moved locally and over great distances. When seeds are able to germinate away from their parent plant, they can have a greater chance of surviving and growing into a mature plant. Seed dispersal also expands the gene pool within forests. Mature trees then share their genes with neighbouring trees of the same species and this transfer strengthens forests against environmental changes. High mobility also makes flying-foxes very effective as forest pollinators. Pollen sticks to their furry bodies and as they crawl from flower to flower, and fly from tree to tree, they pollinate the flowers and aid in the production of honey. This reinforces the gene pool and health of native forests. In turn, native forests provide valuable timber, act as carbon sinks, and stabilise river systems and water catchments, and provide recreational and tourism opportunities worth millions of dollars each year. Understanding flying-foxes Black flying-fox Flying mammals Bats are the only group of mammals capable of active flight. Fossils show that flying-foxes have been a part of the night sky for more than 35 million years. These bats may have been seizing on an opportunity to fill airspace left by the mainly day-flying birds.

There are two types of bats—the flying-foxes and their relatives, which are all fruit and nectar feeders, and the insectivorous bats. These two types of bats appear to have evolved separately, making them distinct groups of mammals. The ancestors of today's flying-foxes may have evolved from a primitive primate, meaning humans and flying-foxes may actually share a common ancestry. Flying-foxes and their relatives range in size from the tiny blossom-bats that could fit in the palm of a human hand, through to the more familiar flying-foxes, which can have a wingspan of more than a metre. Night vision Flying-foxes rely on well-developed vision to see at night, complemented by an excellent sense of smell to locate food. Their large, forward-facing eyes give them binocular vision, while mirror-like retinas reflect and capture the limited available light. Their sight allows them to use rivers, roads and other features as navigation aids. And with highly developed memories, flying-foxes can easily find previously-visited feeding sites and roosts.

Species living in Queensland There are four species of flying-fox that you are likely to see in Queensland with another two species living in the Torres Strait Islands and a third, the bare-backed fruit-bat Dobsonia moluccensis, that only occurs in northern Cape York. There is also a mystery species, the dusky flying-fox Pteropus brunneus that is only known from one specimen taken from Percy Island, off the central coast of Queensland, in the 1870s. It has never been seen again and is believed to be extinct. The flying-fox family also includes four other closely-related species of bat. These are the blossom-bats (two species) and the tube-nosed bats (one species in Queensland and one from Moa Island in Torres Strait). The following table lists the species found in Queensland and where they are likely to occur. Species Found in or near rainforest in north-east Queensland. Torresian tube-nosed bat Nyctimene vizcaccia Occurs in rainforest on Moa Island in Torres Strait but also occurs in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The social life of a flying-fox Flying-foxes are social animals usually living in large roosts—as small as a dozen animals but sometimes numbering in the tens or hundreds of thousands. A temporary roost of little red flying-foxes can include as many as one million individuals, with roost trees bending and breaking under their weight. Roosts are at their largest during the flying-fox breeding season. Young are born in spring and summer. Roosts are often semi-permanent, sometimes dispersing seasonally or when food is no longer available nearby, or when an area is overtaken by the impacts of encroaching development. Predators By living in large numbers, flying-foxes are little affected by predators like pythons, owls and sea-eagles. These predators only take a few individuals, leaving the rest of the roost intact. Breeding For three species of flying-fox (black, grey-headed and spectacled), one young is born in spring or summer after a five to six-month gestation period. Young bats are carried by their mother for three or four weeks, fed on milk, and then left at a roost until they start to fly (at around two to three months old).

Young are weaned when they are five to six months old, allowing the parents to gather in large roosts and mate again. The little red flying-fox follows a similar pattern but is six months out of sequence with the other species, its young being born in late autumn or early winter. This species forms enormous breeding camps of up to a million individuals in late spring and early summer. The little red flying-fox is highly nomadic, moving camp every one to two months to feed on new patches of flowering trees. Flying-fox language When at a roost or feeding, flying-foxes ‘squabble’ loudly. This mixture of screeches and cackles is actually communication and allows them to establish their personal roost sites or feeding territories, ward off rivals, stay in touch with their offspring, and warn others of possible threats. The grey-headed flying-fox is known to have more than 30 specific calls. By listening and watching, it may be possible to link some of the flying-fox's behaviour to the calls it makes. Diet and feeding Flying-foxes eat flowers and fruit, and sometimes leaves, from over 100 species of native trees and vines.

Flying-foxes supplement this diet by eating fruit from introduced plants found in gardens, orchards, parks and streetscaping. Flying-foxes need access to sources of flowering and fruiting trees that can sustain their large roosts. They leave at dusk and use their well-developed sense of smell to find known feeding sites or search for new ones. They can fly up to 50 km in a night in their search for food. The spectacled flying-fox always camps near rainforest and is a specialist fruit-eater known to disperse the seeds of at least 26 species of rainforest canopy tree. In their travels, flying-foxes disperse seeds in their droppings and carry a dusting of pollen from tree to tree, fertilising flowers as they feed. Eucalypts rely heavily on these pollinators, producing most of their nectar and pollen at night to coincide with when bats are active. Without flying-foxes, there is less cross-pollination between trees, particularly over larger distances, and less seed is set.

Watching flying-foxes With forests continuing to give way to expanding settled areas it is important to watch out for the well-being of remaining flying-fox roosts to ensure the health of the habitats that rely on them. At times, bat counts will be carried out to check how these remaining roosts are coping with the pressures of shrinking habitat. Watching flying-foxes and how they behave and interact with others can help you to understand how these fascinating creatures live: when they have young, what they eat, when they move to new feeding sites, and how changes to the weather and surrounding environment affect their behaviour and health—and warn us about emerging risks to their survival. Future of flying-foxes The long-term solution to living near flying-foxes is having a better understanding of their needs—when areas are being protected and before development. Non-residential urban areas, such as parklands, golf courses and even cemeteries, can be planted out with a range of native trees that provide both fruit (e.g. small-leaved figs) and nectar (e.g. eucalypts and melaleucas).

This would help provide feeding sites for flying-foxes away from residential areas and corridors for them to travel between remnant forests. Similarly, if natural food sources are available at the same time that commercial fruit trees are bearing, flying-foxes are less likely to become a problem. Flying-foxes simply need somewhere to live. However, where huge congregations are conflicting with humans, it may be appropriate to attempt to disperse roosts to another location further away from residential areas. Information sources Hall, L., and Richards, R. (2000). Flying foxes and fruit and blossom bats of Australia. Australian Natural History Series. UNSW Press. Strahan, R. (ed.). (1995). Mammals of Australia, Reed.

Last reviewed Human Size Bat Caught In Peru / Philippines : Hoax - UFO News | Aliens | UFO Sightings | Space News | UFO 2017 Human Size Bat Caught In Peru / Philippines : Hoax Home » Hoax » Human Size Bat Caught In Peru / Philippines : Hoax Tweet Latest hoax storyline : The Peruvian army (in earlier reports it was Philippine army) has captured something truly horrific, a human size bat, this animal as you can see in the photograph appears to be a giant bat. Apparently this animal has been frightening locals living near the amazon jungle bordering Peru. Recent reports state that this animal attacked several people walking through the jungle and elsewhere in Latin America. Many say that this is the Chupa Cabra, an animal reported to attack various types of livestock and suck their blood, but this creature is not a Chupa Cabra, but probably it is a giant golden-crowned Flying Fox, one of the largest species of bats in the world with a wingspan of 1.5–1.7 m (4 ft 10 in–5 ft 7 in). This creature exceeds all sizes.

Now, a leading bat expert says an image circulating on the internet of what appears to be an enormous bat found in the Peru / Philippines is a deceptive fake. Director of the Australian Bat Clinic, Trish Wimberley, said that while some species of bats can have wingspans that stretch up to 1.7m, no bat could grow to the size shown in the picture. She said the image was likely doctored or taken from a perspective to make the bat appear larger than it actually is. "You only need to look at the knife above the picture to see the proportion of the bat to the proportion of the knife," Ms Wimberley said. "It’s like when you catch a fish, if you hold it in front of you it looks gigantic." A species of bat known as the giant golden-crowned flying fox or golden-capped fruit bat is found in the Philippines and can grow a wingspan as large as 1.7m, but the animal that appears in the photo does not have golden coloured fur on its head. Ms Wemberley suggested the animal pictured could be a Malaysian flying fox, also known as the vampire bat, which can grow a wingspan of up to 1.5m.

"If you’re lucky they can get to 1.1kg," Ms Wemberley said. Source Posted by UFO Blogger Flying Fox Sips Juice After Dramatic Sky-High Rescue Flying Fox Sips Juice After Dramatic Sky-High Rescue Last week, animal rescuers in Australia got an unusual phone call from a furniture store. A flying fox — a large type of bat — had been spotted hanging off an outside wall, just underneath the shop's window. Wildlife Victoria Amy Hidge, a veteran volunteer with the rescue group Wildlife Victoria , drove to the scene as soon as she could. But when she arrived, and saw how far up on the building the flying fox was stranded, she knew she'd need some reinforcements. Wildlife Victoria Luckily, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was able to come to the rescue, and give Hidge a lift on a cherry-picker. When Hidge reached the flying fox, she saw that his tiny nails were wedged between the metal plate of the window and the glass. With a few wriggles, Hidge was able to pull his nails out and tuck him into her arms for safety. "I could tell right away how appreciative he was," Hidge tells The Dodo.

"They're the most amazing creatures — so intelligent and special." Wildlife Victoria The firefighter who accompanied Hidge on the cherry-picker was nicknamed Finny, so Hidge thought it would be appropriate to name the flying fox after him. Since Hidge wasn't certain how long Finny had been stuck to the wall, she bundled him up in a fluffy towel and arranged for him to go into rehabilitation with a wildlife foster carer. Before he went anywhere, however, Hidge made sure this adorable little creature had a nice long drink. Using a syringe, she fed Finny blackcurrant juice, which he clearly seemed to enjoy! Besides being incredibly cute, flying foxes play an essential role in the Australian ecosystem. They feast on nectar, pollen and fruit, and their eating habits help regenerate forests and distribute pollination. In fact, flying foxes are considered "keystone" species because so many animals and plants depend on their survival and well-being. There are four main species of flying fox in mainland Australia — black, grey-headed, spectacled and little red. Finny is a grey-headed flying fox, which is listed as a threatened species in Victoria.

Unfortunately, flying fox populations have been rapidly declining in recent years, with some species experiencing 95 percent losses in the past 30 years. The causes include habitat destruction, disturbance, starvation, increased heat events, and illegal and legal shootings, as well as entanglements in barbed wire, power lines and backyard fruit tree nets. "While Finny's entanglement was a little unusual," Hidge explains, "we mainly receive reports when they are tangled up in netting loosely thrown over fruit trees. The poor things don't see the netting as they are flying over at night and get themselves all tangled up, often ending up with fatal injuries." To watch Finny's full rescue, check out this video. If you'd like to help creatures like Finny, please consider supporting Wildlife Victoria . Also, if you live in Australia, and you have fruit trees, consider getting a wildlife-friendly net ! Wildlife Victoria SFR - media resources: bat vs ropen Searching for Ropens and Finding God - fourth edition nonfiction book by J. D.

Whitcomb Copyright 2014 Jonathan David Whitcomb Flying fox bat versus ropen - media resources SFRFG back cover Ropen - a modern pterosaur Up until the late 20th Century, the flying fox explanation was used to dismiss reports of large flying creatures in Papua New Guinea, nocturnal creatures that some people called pterodactyls. Investigations from 1993 through 1996 included brief expeditions, or interview sessions, with native eyewitnesses in and around the island of Umboi. The natives had seen strange flying lights or large featherless flying creatures larger than flying fox bats and obviously a different kind of animal. Why are fruit bats not what was observed? Eyewitnesses do not describe creatures with no tails and with wingspans of seven feet; they observe creatures with tails longer than seven feet and wingspans greater than twenty feet. The first might be ascribed to misidentified flying fox bats; not the second. The first is mostly hypothetical; the second correlates with what most eyewitnesses actually describe. And those larger featherless flyers with long tails are also reported to catch fish, making them even less like fruit bats.

Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition, reveals why the ropen of Umboi Island, and some other locations, differs from the fruit bats known as flying foxes: “No flying fox can terrify a group of islanders by flying over a lake. Furthermore, fruit bats never grow long tails, never eat fish, never glow at night, and never dig up the grave of a recently-deceased human to carry away the body. What do fruit bats eat? Fruit. Think of a miracle of science fiction: If a fruit bat grew to become longer than a village hut, it might devour the garden—but not the gardener. Now think of reality: A fruit bat never impersonates a giant long-tailed Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur.” How do flying fox bats differ from ropens? Consider: 1) Ropens glow at night; fruit bats do not. 2) Ropens are said to eat fish, clams, and carrion; fruit bats do not. 3) Large ropens have wingspans between ten feet and fifty-five feet; fruit bats are much smaller. 4) Large ropens have tails longer than seven feet; flying fox bats have tiny tails.

5) A ropen was seen holding itself upright on the trunk of a tree; fruit bats hang upside down from branches. 6) The ropen’s mouth has been described like that of a “crocodile” and the long beak of a bird; The mouth of the Flying Fox looks like . . . well, a fox. The book Searching for Ropens and Finding God makes it clear: “Some critics interpret “pterodactyls” in Papua New Guinea as misidentified flying foxes: fruit bats. Take a closer look. Around Gomlongon and Opai, villages on Umboi Island, they call this bat byung. Villagers have no fear of byung, for when somebody catches one the reward is a bowl of tasty soup. “When seven boys [around their early teenage years], soon to be men, hike up a mountain and immediately run home in terror, a poor explanation is a surprise encounter with an ingredient of soup.” Live Pterosaurs in America - 3rd edition - another nonfiction book by Whitcomb Paul Nation, of Texas, on his expedition on Umboi Island in 2002 It’s not just the general size.

The ropen has a very long tail and a long neck. Brian Hennessy, now a psychologist, saw a flying creature that gave the impression of being “prehistoric.” His answers, on a questionnaire given to him by Jonathan Whitcomb, made it obvious that it was the same creature seen by the soldier Duane Hodgkinson during World War II. Duane Hodgkinson, in recent decades a flight instructor, saw a huge “pterodactyl” in New Guinea in 1944. Author J. D. Whitcomb on his expedition on Umboi Island in 2004 Flying foxes may not be endangered – Features – ABC Environment (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Comment Flying foxes are simultaneously described as adorable, annoying, threatened, and vermin. But even the experts can't agree which is true. THE TREES ARE BARE and the grass has yellowed. Just south of Helensburgh, NSW is Glenburnie Farm with its charming white corrugated sheds and 27 hectares of cultivated soil that promise apples, peaches and nectarines. It's winter, the quietest time for the farm.

Under the weak sun, the orchards have nothing but long, spidery shadows to keep them company. But in the coming summer, up to 500 flying foxes will break shoots, drop waste, and steal the harvest within just a few weeks. Sometimes, they will damage new buds and risk the loss of next year's crops also. Thirty-eight year old Glenn Fahey has been a horticulturalist since 1986 and took over his family's farm in 1999. He's tall and built strong with weathered hands and a grey-black beard that belies his age. But his voice is youthful. "Even when I was a young boy I remember my father commenting that there were flying foxes around. We might get them once every season but over recent years, the numbers have been built up and up to the point it's pretty much guaranteed that you're going to suffer a lot of damage every season. Mostly, we're getting damage each night," he says. Since 1995 he has spent $900,000 on netting in an attempt to protect two-thirds of his crops from flying foxes.

But it only takes 20 to 30 per cent of his crop to be damaged before he starts losing profits. Short of more netting, there's not much Fahey can do. Currently the grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is listed as vulnerable species under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), and the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act in Victoria. But for many people, these vegetarian megabats are not considered threatened so much as pests and 'urban terrorists' that destroy native trees in botanic gardens, and carry potential viruses such as the Hendra and the rare bat lyssavirus. Every year, debates rage in the media amongst farmers, ecologists and conservationists about the status of this species, with highly questionable population figures batted back and forth. Even the president of The Australasian Bat Society Michael Pennay says it's difficult to make an assessment either way. He believes studies support the idea of declining bats but any reassessment of its listing should be based on a new census.

"Recent counts have suggested that the population has dropped quite dramatically and people believe that they're declining," he says. "But I think that to be confident about the status of the species we really need to have quite an accurate count." Wildlife ecologist Dr Louise Shilton who has worked on counts of spectacled flying foxes, a related species, agrees. She says that currently, without a census, science is not robust enough to suggest grey-headed flying foxes are in decline because of the mobile nature of these creatures. "If you're only looking at one site or a handful of sites, they can move away from those sites and simply be roosting elsewhere because of better foraging," she says. "And if you're only looking at those few sites, I think what's tended to happen is that people go 'They're in decline. They've gone. Numbers are going down'." 'Millions' of bats The moves to list the grey-headed flying fox as vulnerable were based on evidence its population had declined by 30 per cent between 1989 and 1998, and had dropped sharply from the "many millions" estimated by zoologist Francis Ratcliffe in 1932.

A lot of scientific literature on flying foxes references Ratcliffe's work to assert a decline of flying foxes. But zoologist Dr John Nelson, who is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University, says he knew Ratcliffe personally, and the "millions" were rough indications rather than accurate estimations. "I spoke to him about that and he said 'No it wasn't millions. In retrospect, I shouldn't have written that,'" Nelson says. "He said there were so many of them that's what you would just say. But he never counted them." Wildlife ecologist Dr Chris Tidemann, who specialises in wildlife monitoring, conservation and management in urban areas, believes there are certainly millions now. "Over the last few years, there's been a steady increase in the presence of grey-headed flying foxes all over the place. Animals are not just camping [in new places] but dropping young [there]. And that's been happening all over the place and that's a sign of an expanding population." But bat expert Dr Kerryn Parry-Jones from the Institute of Wildlife Research of the University of Sydney insists that grey-headed flying foxes are vulnerable even today.

"Population models have been done on the grey-headed flying fox, based on the age structure of their population and these show that currently the population is decreasing sharply, actually it is apparently halving every 6.7 years," she says. These population models have only taken place in the coastal regions of NSW. But Parry-Jones believes that if high death rates amongst adults continue as they have, the grey-headed flying foxes as a whole are likely to be extinct in 50 years time. "This species has a relatively low birth rate balanced by a long life, so the premature death of breeding females has a serious effect on the population growth rate," she says. In the last couple of years particularly, Parry-Jones says that large numbers of flying-foxes have been admitted to rehabilitators in Queensland and New South Wales due to the La Niña event and lack of food resources. At a national level, the most recent count was done six years ago. Run by the Commonwealth Government across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, the eleventh national census of the grey-headed flying fox in 2005 estimated that there were 674,000, at least double the figure of April 2004.

However the 2005 count has been dismissed as inaccurate because of volunteer shortage, fatigue and an error in the methodology. Consequently, the national census was stopped. Shilton says generally, accuracy in counting is 20 per cent either way. "If we were counting them in every single site they roosted, well then in theory your data should only be fluctuating by the accuracy [of the counting volunteers]. But the fact that they're fluctuating three to four fold, means you're not counting them everywhere they are." Shilton recommends multiple censuses throughout the year to capture seasonal variations. To list or not to list? In April this year, the New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson called for a federal reassessment of the listing of the grey-headed flying foxes as vulnerable species. Currently the New South Wales government is hoping to collaborate with the Commonwealth to gain a better understanding of the conservation status of this species. Chris Tidemann doesn't believe they should be listed as vulnerable. "It's resulting in a lot of misspent funds, public and otherwise," he says. "And there are all these other complications of moving bats out of the Sydney Botanic Gardens.

If they weren't [vulnerable], it would be a much simpler matter." Recently, the NSW government announced $5 million in funding to help orchardists in the Sydney Basin and Central Coast regions install exclusion netting, a non-lethal method to control flying foxes. Later, shooting licences will also be phased out in NSW. Despite these measures, the grey-headed flying foxes still face natural challenges such as weather variations and competition from the mainly northern tropical species, the black flying foxes. Whether from competition or overcrowding, over recent years, they have been leaving their traditional coastal regions of New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, moving south and inland into farming areas such as Young, Orange, Bathurst and Tumut. "There was a big camp at Albury Wodonga on the Murray River this year and that's well outside the sort of traditionally known range of grey-headed flying foxes," says Pennay. They're even spreading into other states. Last year in May, it was reported that at least 1,200 grey-headed flying foxes settled in a woman's backyard in Fullarton, a suburb of Adelaide.

As bats widen their habitats, it's inevitable that they will come into contact with humans a lot more and conflict will arise. But flying foxes play an important ecological role in pollinating and dispersing seeds of many trees across long distances, particularly eucalypts, melaleucas, and banksias. Michael Pennay says it is worth remembering that they are as much native animals as their better loved marsupial counterparts. "It's important to acknowledge that they can be problematic," he says. "But they're an Australian native and they do have a right to live here as well." List of Medieval and Ancient Monsters (plural: Anthropophagi) Cannibal humanoids thought to dwell in the East and in Africa. Ant-Lion (See Mermecolion) Arimaspians: a legendary one-eyed Scythian people who would attempt to steal gold from Griffins in order to adorn their hair. Aspidoceleon (also spelled Aspidochelone)--a sea-monster, much like a whale, but having a turtle-shell and a snake-like head. Cf. Leviathan.

In various translations, rendered cethegrande (Middle English) Cetus (Latin for whale), a grande (literally a "large"), and even a "sea-pig" by one homilist. Ass Centaur (alias Onocentaur) A creature with the body of a donkey and the waist, arms, and head of a human placed where the donkey's head should be. They were notorious for drunkeness and debauchery. In one version of the Physiologus, they are used as a symbol of hypocritical churchmen. Astomi Barnacle-Goose (alias a carnard): Medieval bestiaries stated that a species of goose existed that hatched out of barnacles. The French word for a barnacle goose (canard) thus became a common term for any false report. Basilisk (Compare with Cockatrice, below): A venomous reptilian creature so lethal it had the power to turn people to stone.

Bean Sidh (often spelled "Banshee," Irish prophetic spirit) Blemiyeh (Headless men, also spelled Blemmyae) Brownie Caladrius (also spelled Charadrius, see below) Callitrice Canocephalus, pl. Canocephali (also spelled Cynocephalus): men with the heads of dogs. These dog-headed men were supposed to live somewhere in the East. Purportedly, they sent a delegation to the Pope in Avignon. In some accounts, they are carnivorous, and in others they are vegetarians who model their lives on principles akin to that of Beneditine monks. In many medieval legends, Saint Christopher is a canocephalus. Capricorn: A fanciful beast with the body of a fish and the head and forelimbs of a goat, precursor to the Zodiac symbol. It may have originated in a Babylonian water-god, Ea, or the Indian myth of the Makara. Caristae Demon (Judeo-Christian examples: Asmodeus, Belial, Mamman, Grizzel Greediguts, Acheron, Mephistopholes) Click here for Autumn Roger's bibliography on demons.

Dhampir (Serbian vampire) *Djinni (Arabic, also spelled genie) In the Arabian Nights, lived in a rose-domed city called Shadukiam. The oldest genie, by whom they swear, is named Kashkash. Ampharool is the genie who can teach men the secret of flying, according to a medieval grimmoire called The Book of Power.) Djinniyeh (Arabic, female djinn, see djinn) Domovoi *Dragon, Western A fire-breathing reptile of unusual size and ferocity, often with a varying number of legs, sometimes winged. In most versions it either breathes fire, has a venomous bite, gives off noxious fumes, or some combination of these three traits. In Norse and Anglo-Saxon legends, dragons have a lust for gold and often sleep on huge piles of treasure in burial mounds. They are often linked to greed. For instance, the dragon Fafnir was originally a dwarf who killed his brothers to gain access to their treasure, and then over the years of guarding and hoarding his treasure turned into a dragon until Siegmund kills him.

In Beowulf , a dragon becomes enraged when a golden cup is stolen from his treasure hoard and he goes on a rampage in King Beowulf's kingdom. In European legends, the dragons often have a taste for the flesh of young virginal princesses, and often have the loathsome habit of bathing in springs or lakes and poisoning these waters with the pollution that comes from their slimy bodies. Cf. Lung , the Oriental Dragon Dragonhorse (cf. Hamaryad, Greek) *Dwarf (Norse) Short, stalky beings that resemble European craftsmen. In Norse legends, when the Frost Giant Ymir died, his body turned into the various parts of the universe. The dwarves were the pale maggots that rose from his flesh. They are associated with the earth, both in the sense of hidden treasure or secrets and the sense of decay and death. Any hero that gains a sword from the dwarves in Norse legend is almost certainly going to find the weapon is cursed in some way, and if dwarves discover or create a magical item, it will almost certainly lead to murder.

Echeneis (Greek, "ship-detaining")--a classical and bestiary fish that can stop a ship going full sail by attaching itself to the hull. *Echidna, the mother of Monsters (Greek) *Elf, Irish Tuatha de Dannan, Seelie and Unseelie varieties. *Elf, Welsh A bloodsucking ghost that resembles a pale giant with a bull's head on its shoulders. Ercinee Bird of the Hercynian Forest, glows in the dark. Ettin (Norse) Hippogriff (Renaissance invention in Orlando Furioso) Hippopodes Hsien In Chinese mythology, angelic "feathered folk" with winged or feathered images appearing in Chou art. The book of Chuang-Tzu pictures hsien as white-skinned, delicate superhuman beings: "These are divine persons dwelling there, whose flesh and skin resemble ice and snow, soft and delicate like sequestered girl-children; they do not eat the five cereals; they suck the wind and drink the dew; they mount on clouds and vapors and drive the flying dragons--thus they rove beyond the four seas" (quoted in Schafer 63).

See Schafer, Edward H. Ancient China. Great Ages of Man: A History of the World's Cultures. NY: Time Life Books, 1967. Click here for Michael Zibelman's student bibliography on sea-monsters. Lillith , Mother of Demons (Hebrew) Adam's first wife, before Eve in the Hebrew Midrash tradition. Click here for Catherine Anne Gunderson's student bibliography on Lillith. Lilit (pl. Lilitu: Hebrew succubi, the daughters of Lillith Click here for Catherine Anne Gunderson's student bibliography on Lillith. Lindworm Click here for Jeremiah Mattson's student bibliography on Lung. Magyr--ugly mermaids with webbed hands, deformed faces, double-chins, and fishy tales reported by Vikings around Greenland. Malebranche Demon (Dante, Inferno) Manticore (alias Manticora, Tiger-Lion) Medusa-snake-haired Gorgon from Greek mythology Melusinae--Paracelsus' term for water spirits. The name comes from Melusine, a fairy-woman who turned into a half-dragon or a mermaid, depending upon version of the legend.

*Mermaid National Aquarium | Grey-headed Flying Fox Grey-headed Flying Fox Grey-headed Flying Fox The flying fox looks very much like the canine creature for which it is named. The grey head is visible, along with its long snout and large eyes, even when the animal’s large black wings are wrapped around its body. Below the grey head, this flying fox displays a wide collar of golden-orange fur. Grey-headed flying foxes live in and around the rain forests of northeastern Australia. They live in large colonies that can contain up to a million individuals, and the colony sizes keep increasing as their habitat is destroyed, limiting roosting sites. The flight, or rather landing, of these creatures causes quite a spectacle, with a noise to match. Although they are very graceful flyers, flying foxes seem not to have perfected their landing technique: the fruit bats often simply fly until they hit something, or crash into trees in order to stop themselves. Did You Know This is the largest bat in Australia and can live for 30 years. Diet These bats feed on the blossoms and fruit of fruit trees, and play an important role in the local ecosystem.

By feasting on the fruit of many different species of trees in their environment, the cross-pollination that occurs through the bats’ excretion of seeds enables the fruit trees to reproduce. This natural benefit of their diet, however, is little comfort for fruit farmers who neighbor the species’ camps. The flying fox eats not only the ripened fruit, but also the blossoms and nectar of trees. Size The grey-headed flying fox is the largest of the flying foxes. The bats at the Aquarium are about 11 inches in length. Range The grey-headed flying fox makes its home in the tall trees of the tropical rain forests in northeastern Australia and the Southeast Asian islands. Population Status The grey-headed flying fox is listed as vulnerable or threatened under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999, and populations are dwindling as the rain forests in which they live are destroyed. What habitats are left are suffering from poor weather conditions such as drought and cyclones, further reducing flying fox populations by decreasing food supplies. The number of colonies is decreasing at a rate dangerous to the long-term survival of the species.

Unfortunately, populations of this species recover very slowly from these setbacks, as the species has a slow reproductive rate of only one offspring per year, and males are not sexually mature until well into the later stages of their lives. Predators

Question: What type of creature is a flying fox?
Answer: Bat