The straw colored fruit bat got their name from the silky yellowish or straw color of their exterior, the color of the wings are black, and the back hair is pale and somewhat tawny. Males are generally bright orange, compared to the females which are usually silky yellowish.. They have huge cheeks, eyes, and ears. The average weight of these bats is ranged from eight to twelve ounces and grows to 5.7 to 9 inches in length. It could have wings span up to 30 inches; though females are generally larger than males. Further details goes into the anatomy of the bat. The bats heart is very large, and it's wings are long and tip tapered. The cheeks of the bat are also large like little pouches.
The Straw Colored Fruit bat is a highly social species. They tend to live in groups of over 100,000 and at times that number may increase to almost one million. In the nighttime, the colony leaves the roost in smaller groups to find any food which is in forests near to their environment or any plantations that also may be near.
They find food by sight and smell and also have been seen chewing on soft wood for the moisture. These bats can also pollinate and disperse seeds among the forests, and although they feed at night, it does not mean that they are nocturnal. During the day, they will be found resting moving along the colony. Year to year, season to season, the bats will be using the same place that they found food the previous year or season.
The only problem with these animals is that since they live in large colonies, they have a tendency to ruin crops and be a pest to farms. Although they do bother farms, biologists are not clear yet whether their advantages of being pollinators and seed dispersers evens out the damage they do to crops every season.
The diet of the Straw Colored Fruit Bats very depending on whether they are domesticated in zoos, or out in the wild. Non domesticated bats (not in the zoo) usually eat bark, flowers, leaves, nectar and fruits. In Zoos, they are fed various bat mix, apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and cantaloupe. In some zoos they are also fed a marmoset diet and vegetables.