Small Mauritian flying fox Small Mauritian flying fox The small Mauritian flying fox or dark flying fox ("Pteropus subniger", known as rougettes to early French travelers) is an extinct species of megabat. It lived on the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in the Mascarene Islands of the Indian Ocean. It was abundant, with up to 400 sometimes crowding together at a single roost in a cave or in an ancient, hollow tree, while most other fruit bats prefer to roost in the branches of large trees. Local people believed there was only one male per roost, which may indicate the sexes roosted separately and
Black flying fox roosts with the grey-headed flying fox ("Pteropus poliocephalus"), the spectacled flying fox ("P. conspicillatus"), and/or the little red flying fox ("P. scapulatus"). They roost in mangroves, paperbark swamps, patches of rainforest and bamboo forests, and very rarely in caves or underneath overhangs. Black flying foxes breed once a year. A single young is born and carried by its mother for the first month of life, after which it is left behind in the roost when the mother is out foraging at night. Black flying foxes eat pollen and nectar from native eucalyptus, lilypillies, paperbark, and turpentine trees. When native foods