I was chatting with visitors when the fruit bats began to squabble with each other in the back of the barn. I am so used to their chattering that it really didn’t register with me when they act up.

Our visitors stopped mid-sentence looking a little startled. I explained that the noise they heard was “the bats” that live here. I asked if they wanted to see them, and they most definitely did.

One of the visitors asked what the reason was associated with those sounds.

These bats possess an entire range of vocalizations including grunts and screeches which they use to communicate with each other.

Additionally, according to several studies, because of their constant exposure to thousands of other individuals in the wild, they can form their own language to interact with one another about topics such as food, roosting sites, or danger.

Colonies of Egyptian fruit bats develop their own dialects, producing sounds at different frequencies. Egyptian fruit bat pups acquire the dialect of their colonies by listening to their mothers’ vocalizations. Is that cool, or what?

Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) are found in Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and the Indian subcontinent. They weigh about two to six ounces with wingspans of about 24 inches. Males and females are chestnut brown or grayish brown, with pale undersides and males are larger than females.

In the wild, the average lifespan is eight to 10 years, while in captivity 22 years. The longer lifespans are due to care in captivity, available food, medical care, and not being preyed upon by predators. Predators include hawks, owls, and falcons, specifically the lanner falcon as well as a mammalian predator known as the genet.

Egyptian fruit bats are social and live in colonies with thousands of other bats. They are some of the only fruit bats to navigate through echolocation. It is a primitive version of echolocation compared to Pennsylvania’s bats who are insectivores. Echolocation in all species of bats is used to pinpoint food. Egyptian fruit bats are adapted to seeing in low light and possesses highly developed senses of smell and sight.

Egyptian fruit bats are frugivorous, consuming mostly fruit although occasionally they eat leaves as well. Common fruits eaten by the Egyptian fruit bat are Persian lilacs, loquat, figs, and wild dates.

Egyptian fruit bats are considered pests by farmers because they will eat the fruits that are commercially grown as well as fruit growing in various habitats. They are important pollinators and seed dispersers for many species of trees and other plants.

Short flights are made from the roosting area to various fruit sources. They might carry the fruit back to their roosts or stay on-site to eat.

Sometimes the bats would travel as far as 10 miles to where significant amounts of fruit. They have been seen gorging themselves - eating an equivalent of about 50 percent of their weight in fruit at one time.

Their metabolisms are extremely high with food passing through the small and large intestines in about an hour and a half.

Egyptian fruit bats are ecologically important as pollinators or seed dispersers for many species of trees and plants. The baobab tree, for instance, relies almost exclusively on fruit bats to pollinate its flowers. They are seed dispersers of large and small seeds. Seeds are dispersed up to half a mile away from parent trees.

Even seeds too large to ingest are dispersed due to the habit of picking fruits in one tree and consuming them in another where larger seeds are spat out.

The Egyptian fruit bat has two breeding seasons: the first is from April to August, while the second season is from October to February.

When the breeding season begins, the bats within the colony separate based on sex. The males gather together to form bachelor groups while the females form maternity colonies.

Females typically give birth to only a single offspring each year (called a “pup”), but twins occur. The pups are independent from their mothers after nine months, once they have finally reached adulthood. Offspring typically stay with the same colony as the parents for their entire lives.

Jeannie Carl is a naturalist at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill. The center rehabilitates injured animals and educates the public on a variety of wildlife found in the area. For information on the center, visit www.carboneec.org.