People in Lahore were treated to a very unusual sight during this winter’s bitterly cold weather and, while some of them were fascinated, others were both nervous and, probably have watched too many horror movies, even frightened by what they saw.

There was, however, absolutely nothing to worry about as the colonies of hanging upside down, large bats. Instead of hiding away in dark places as they generally do during the daytime, which had decided to roost in trees, they where fruit bats that, being eminently sensible, were hanging out in the sunshine in an attempt at keeping relatively warm as their usual places were dank and cold.

Fruit bats, the ones spotted in Lahore were probably rousettus leschenaulti, are a completely different species than vampire bats which are not, I repeat not, found here in Pakistan. Fruit bats are harmless unless, that is, you happen to have fruit trees in which case they can be a real pest!

Quite large in size, with an almost dog-like muzzle and big eyes that seem to watch your every movement, this species is covered in slightly reddish-brown, short fur.

And quite unlike many other kinds of bats, they often move up to the hills for the summer months and then back down to the plains during winter.

There are permanently resident colonies of this species in Malir, Karachi and Lahore and it is primarily a summer visitor in Azad Kashmir, Malakand, Peshawar and Sialkot. While it can cause quite a bit of damage in fruit orchards, in general it does not, surprisingly, like citrus fruit so oranges, grapefruits and lemons are quite safe from its juice-sucking habits.

Roosting in colonies, these can number several thousand fruit bats all huddled together in places such as caves and ancient tombs, it is more often observed in numbers of perhaps two dozen upwards — as was the recent case in Lahore where the keeping themselves warm bats numbered from around 20 up to 40.

These colonies usually comprise both male and females of the species with all age groups being represented. It has, however, been noted that sometimes, although this is relatively rare, females with young form colonies of their own. These bats give birth to just one baby at a time and, in the plains, this happens twice a year — once in mid-February to mid-March and the second time in July or August.

The baby bats are carried around by their mothers for approximately two months, after which time they are expected to fly around themselves and seek their own food.

Their favourite fruits are mangoes, custard apple (sharifa), sapodilla (chikoo), black plum (jamun), papaya and bananas but, if they can’t find ripe fruit they will drink flower nectar instead.

If you are lucky enough to see a colony of fruit bats, stand back and admire them and do not be afraid as they are probably quite frightened of you!