Identifying flying fox species in Assam
Hello my fellow mammallovers,
I am almost done with my successful mammalwatching trip through India. Most species that I saw I have been able to identify, but there is one species that I have not yet identified.
Near the Brahmaputra river in Guwahati, there are several trees filled with flying foxes. Most of these trees contained Indian flying foxes, which due to size and colouration are easy to identify.
However, I also saw a few trees with flying foxes that were smaller in body and wingspan and had a black fur. They were not completely black, but their belly and chest region was. I have been trying to identify which species this could have been (perhaps it is just juvenile Indian flying fox?). Sadly as this was on a day that we were out doing other things than mammalwatching, we didn’t have our camera on us, and my cellphone photos don’t give a lot of detail.
I returned today to see if I could photograph the species, but they and most of the Indian flying fox seemed to have left.
When googling I can find several species that match my observation, such as Lyle’s flying fox and Andersens flying fox, but neither of these occur in Assam. Since we saw the animals in the busy city of Guwahati, I doubt that it is something that has not yet been identified by other people and I was wondering if someone here could help me out in regards of species identification?
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