fruit bat

noun

Definition of fruit bat

: any of a family (Pteropodidae of the suborder Megachiroptera) of often large tropical and subtropical Old World bats that feed on ripe fruit, pollen, and nectar and that usually use visual navigation rather than echolocation

— called also flying fox

Examples of fruit bat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Having many, many copies of a gene presents opportunities, says Thomas Kepler, a computational immunologist at Boston University’s medical school, who’s done much of the Egyptian fruit bat research. — Rachel Ehrenberg, Ars Technica, "The bat-virus détente," 3 July 2020 Isabella Linares takes a photograph of a fruit bat before the start of an interactive behind-the-scenes livestream at the Oakland Zoo in California on April 16, 2020. — Andrea Thompson, Scientific American, "Zoos Find Creative Ways to Cope with Coronavirus Lockdowns," 19 June 2020 Early findings reported in April suggest that fruit bats and ferrets are susceptible, while pigs and chickens are not. — Popular Science, "Vets, farmers, and zookeepers can help prevent the next pandemic," 20 May 2020 Initial results suggest that fruit bats and ferrets are susceptible, whereas pigs and chickens are not. — National Geographic, "THE BEST OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX," 3 Apr. 2020 Samoan fruit bats are native to the National Park of American Samoa. — Allen Kim, CNN, "Samoan fruit bats will be featured on quarters released by the US Mint next month," 12 Jan. 2020 In Kerala, a coastal state on the Arabian Sea, the local government has followed its own experience of dealing with a 2018 outbreak of the Nipah virus, which originates from fruit bats and can lead to brain swelling. — Archana Chaudhary, Bloomberg.com, "How India Plans to Lock Down 1.3 Billion People in a Democracy," 7 May 2020 The cave served as the roosting site for about 100,000 individuals of the Egyptian fruit bat, then a prime suspect as reservoir for Marburg. — David Quammen, Popular Science, "Where will the next pandemic come from?," 15 Oct. 2012 At the same moment, over at the Lubee Bat Conservancy, several species of fruit bat are (quite literally) hanging around with each other. — National Geographic, "See the Full Archive," 21 Apr. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fruit bat.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.