Lyle's Flying Fox

Lyle's flying fox is a large tailless fruit bat with long narrow wings, a dark body and a contrasting orange-brown mantle around the neck. It is restricted to mainland Southeast Asia, with confirmed populations in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Day roosts are conspicuous colonies in tall trees (Mammal Diversity Database; species-level colony studies).

At night it travels widely to feed on fruit, nectar, pollen and flowers in forests, orchards and settled agricultural landscapes. This makes it both an important seed disperser and pollinator and, locally, a source of conflict at fruit crops. Because many animals gather at traditional roosts, hunting and roost-tree loss can affect large numbers at once (species-level ecological studies). It is Nationally Vulnerable (Thailand Red Data 2025).