Short-nosed Fruit Bat (Cynopterus sphinx) Photograph by Shantanu Kuveskar, CC BY-SA 4.0

Dog-faced Fruit Bat
Cynopterus sphinx

The Greater Short-nosed or Dog-faced Fruit Bat has a relatively long snout and a snub nose. Their upper parts are brown to grey-brown with paler under parts and their fur is very fine and silky.

Observed under several Chinese Fan Palms in the USRC gardens, it is an important seed disperser and tree pollinator in Hong Kong and is one of our largest bats with an adult wingspan of up to 48 cm (18.9 in).

The males commonly form a tent harem under the leaves of the fan palm where whole families gather. The species is protected in Hong Kong and cutting of the palm fronds during management is done carefully so as not to cause harm to the resident bat families.