And that's not all they do. Luckily for the Internet, Bats Qld share photos and videos of their 'patients' to show just how adorable they really are. From napping to feeding, continue scrolling to check out the daily life of these little critters that look like cute sky puppies.

Bats aren't just pretty; they are important to our ecosystems. "Bats have meaningful roles in pollination and seed dispersal," a spokesperson for Bats Qld told Bored Panda. "For example, the eucalyptus forest that the koalas rely on are pollinated by the flying foxes." Also, these night flyers contribute to controlling insect populations.

Sadly, we often seem to forget these good deeds. "Humans are a threat to bats. Barbed wire, fruit netting, domestic pets and car strikes are the most common reason they need help. The bigger picture would also include deforestation and habitat loss."

The negative myths surrounding these creatures don't do them any good too. For instance, we often hear that bats are dirty, but Bats Qld immediately reject this notion: "Nope, bats are very clean animals and clean themselves all the time." Another misconception is that bats swoop people. "Nope again. Bats cannot fly like a bird, but instead must drop before they can fly up, much like a paraglider. This is often mistaken for swooping."

You can also hear people say that bats have lots of diseases. "False, bats in Australia only carry one disease that poses a risk to people directly from the animal which is Australian Bat Lyssa Virus. This is found in less than 0.01% of the bat population." Besides, there also is a fully effective post-exposure vaccine. Interestingly, flying foxes have similar eyesight to ours, and although microbats don't have the best vision, they can see as well. The bottom line is that bats are doing their part in keeping the environment in check, and they deserve respect for their contribution.

Flying Fox vs. Bats (What Are The Differences?) Flying fox and bats are both mammals and of the order Chiroptera. But they have very distinct features which separates them in unique ways. So, flying fox vs. bats what are the differences? Flying fox are largest bats in the world. They like to eat fruits. They are also known as fruit bats on the other hand other bats are much smaller in size and they mainly eat insects and small animals. There are also vampire bats that feed on animal blood but they are much smaller in size.

Flying Fox: Pteropus is a genus of megabats and is the largest in the world. There are around sixty species and are commonly known as flying fox or fruit bats. They eat fruits and other plant supplements, though some also eat insects. Most of them are nocturnal. They have very keen eyesight, with which they navigate excellently at night. They have an excellent sense of smell so that they can locate their food source.

Flying bats are useful to humans and the ecology since they help in pollinating plants and dispersing seeds. However, since they get blamed for destroying crops, they get hunted and killed. Since the females give birth to only one offspring each year, they are slowly becoming extinct. They cannot echolocate.

They are a source of disease to humans thro' two well-known viruses – the Nipah virus and Hendra Virus. They also spread rabies thro' Australian bat lyssavirus. These virus has caused death in the past. Flying fox gets featured in mythology, traditional art, folklore, and weaponry. Their fur and teeth got used as currency in the past, while some tribes still use their teeth as a bartering tool.

Bats comprise 20% of mammal species worldwide and are the most significant order after rodents. They have around 1,200 species. The above megabats or flying foxes are part of this extended family. You also have the microbats. Now, the classification of bats is as follows: Yinpterochiropetra and Yangochiropetra.

Megabats and few microbats are part of Yinpterochiropetra. The rest of the tribe of bats is Yangochiropetra. Along with eating fruits and nuts, bats feed on insects and in some rare varieties of animals and birds. Vampire bats are known the world over, to feed on blood. Microbats are also known as small bats, insectivorous bats, or echolocating bats. Bats are generally known to be dark and evil, attracting witchcraft, vampires, blood, and death. Their dung gets the stamp of super fertilizer in certain regions. Their sheer numbers attract tourists at their abodes across the world. Let's now look at both these mammals under various heads and check out their similarities and otherwise.

Flying Foxes Body: Flying fox weigh between 120g to 1.6kg. The wingspan of larger species is widest among all species. Their pelage is dense with thick fur, shiny and long. They don't have tails. Their head resembles that of a fox, with small pointed ears and large eyes. Males are usually larger than females, who have one set of mammae in their chests. These bats have sharp and curved claws.

Skull and dental formation: Their skull consists of 24 bones, and the adult flying fox has a total of 34 teeth. Their snout consists of 7 bones; the cranium has 16 and the mandible. Like all mammals, the three middle ear ossicles, which transmits sound to the brain. Their dental structure is made up of canines, incisors, premolars, and molars.

Intelligence: These megabats have large brains, similar to domestic dogs. They can identify the places they visit and have long term storage. There is ongoing research concerning some activities they could be trained to accomplish. Flying fox has a large heart, which beats at 100 to 400 beats per minute. They have a simple digestive system, which processes the food in twelve minutes flat!Smell: Their sense of smell gets enhanced due to their large olfactory bulbs. They rely to a large extent, on their sense of smell to locate their home, food source, and also their mate. Males have a habit of covering themselves with their urine.

Sight: Flying fox relies on its vision to hunt for food since they lack echolocate capabilities. Their large binocular like eyes are at the front of their heads. They are dichromatic with rods and cones. Since their cones are minimal, they detect blue and green color and can see in low light conditions.

Social Life: Most flying foxes are social. They form colonies of individuals with strength between 15,000 to 1 lakh. This depends upon the species of Pteropus. Within this colony, there are various groups co-exist one male and many female groups; one female and a few male groups, and also male-male groups. Mating usually takes place during these winter months, and members of these colonies keep constantly changing till summer arrives. During summer, males are on their own, since the females are busy taking care of their pups for the next six months.

Diet And Foraging: Flying foxes primarily feed on flowers, nectar, fruits, nuts, and leaves of trees. Since they feed on all kinds of the plant bearing fruits and nuts, they are considered pests by farmers. Sometimes they feed on small insects like cicadas. What they eat depends on their nutritional needs. They travel long distances for their food. Sometimes they go out hunting in a group, and there are times, they hunt alone. When they find their food, they hang with their clawed hind feet and use their long-winged forearm claws to grip the food and suck out the extract. The residue skin, seed, and stem of the food are left behind as ejecta pellets.

Ecosystem: The flying fox disperses the ejecta pellets of fruits and nuts after they consume the juice. Incase they have ingested the seeds, these flows out of their gut while flying or moving away from the parent tree. This way, they are known to disperse seeds far away from the orchards. They are also known to eat pollen of flowers and the nectar. This pollen then stuck to their body, moves to other flowers, thereby germinating them. They are friends of a durian variety of commercial trees. They don't disturb the flowering and fruit-bearing period and then feed and disburse the ejecta pellets for these trees to multiply. Human Relationship: Food: They get consumed as bushmeat, which is a delicacy in many regions. This leads to the depletion of this community, which is fast dwindling. Due to the carrier of neurotoxin beta-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), which leads to neurodegenerative disease, feeding of bushmeat effects humans. They carry the BMAA virus from the cycad fruits, on which they feed. Medicine: Flying fox gets killed for preparing a traditional medication to treat a fever with shivering, rheumatism, asthma, and chest pain.