Daito Fruit Bat
Daito Fruit Bat
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| ダイトウオオコウモリ | |||
| Character Data | |||
| AKA | Daito Flying Fox, Erabu Fruit Bat
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| Romaji | Daitouookoumori
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| Debut | Kemono Friends Does Okinawa | ||
| Animal Data | |||
| Scientific Name | Pteropus dasymallus daitoensis
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| Distribution | Daito Islands
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| Diet | Frugivore
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| Avg. Lifespan | Unknown
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| Read More | Daito Fruit Bat
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| Conservation | 
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| Daito Fruit Bat | Festival | KF3 | Gallery |
“Eh? I'm too big? I'm too stand out even if I'm flying during the night? Ultrasonic waves? Isn't that difficult? Could it be as a bat I'm a failure? But I'm good at dangling. Isn't that like a bat? The night when the moon's beautiful make me want to fly into the forest. Ah, I found fruits!”
—Daito Fruit Bat's introduction
Daito Fruit Bat is a type of Friend that first appeared in Kemono Friends Does Okinawa.
Appearance
Daito Fruit Bat has very short hair, white on the top in the middle and on the tips, a light greyish brown in between those sections, and a darker shade on her bangs. She has small dark bat ears poking out of her hair. Her eyes are brown and have glowing red pupils. Like the other bat Friends, her dark clawed wings are on her body.
Around her neck is a fluffy yellow collar, and she wears a white shirt that appears unbuttoned at the bottom as it splits. Her gloves and tights are the same light greyish brown seen in her hair, where her pleated skirt is grey and appears to have a black layer underneath that is shorter than the actual skirt. She has ankle height heeled boots that are black and have black bows.
Series Appearances
| Media | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Kemono Friends Festival | ↪ Minor character, playable character |
| 2019 | Kemono Friends 3 | ↪ Minor character, playable character |
| 2019 | Kemono Friends 3: Planet Tours | ↪ Photo illustration |
In Real Life
The Daito Fruit Bat is a subspecies of the Ryukyu Flying Fox native to the Daito Islands of Japan. They have a wingspan of up to 1.2-1.4 meters, are around 22 centimeters long and weigh around 500 grams. they are covered in long, brown hair and have a yellow nape. The other four subspecies live on Taiwan, the Philippines and the rest of the Ryukyu islands.
As the name suggests, the Daito Fruit Bat mostly feeds on fruits but also on flowers, leaves and, rarely, insects. They're important as pollinators and drop seeds of digested food up to almost 2 kilometers far away from the parent trees. They do not only pollinate wild plants but also commercial plants important for timer, crops and medicinal plants; however, they also eat fruit from orchards which causes damages for farmers.
Daito Fruit Bats roost in trees either alone or in small groups during the day and they forage for food at night. Unlike many other bats they do not use echolocation but rather rely on both sight and hearing to navigate in the air. They mate in winter and a single young is born after a pregnancy of around 4-6 months. Females do not reproduce until they are at least one year of age, making the species slow to reproduce.
The biggest threats to all the Ryukyu Flying Fox species are deforestation, habitat loss, illegal culls done by farmers, typhoons and predation by cats and dogs. In the Philippines, the meat of the bat is considered a delicacy among locals. Currently, the Taiwanese Fruit Bat is almost extinct; the Daito and Erabu Fruit Bats are critically endangered and the Orii's and Yaeyama Fruit Bat are considered near threatened by the IUCN red list; the species as a whole is listed as vulnerable with an estimated 3,000-6,000 mature specimen still alive.
Trivia
- Daito Fruit Bat is the only friend to be upside down in her character art, however in Kemono Friends 3, her icon and artwork aren't upside down.