What Do Flying Foxes Eat?

When I first saw the Flying Foxes of Cambodia, I was overwhelmed by their size and strength in numbers. Being bats, they sleep during the day but as it starts getting dark in Siem Reap, they all wake up and need to feed. With thousands of them living in the trees of Royal Independence Gardens, I could only imagine what kind of a blood bath it must be when they all get munchies. Afterall, that’s what bats feed on, right – blood. At least that’s what bats are known for? But if these Cambodian Flying Foxes feed on blood of living creatures, there must be a major carnage happening somewhere each night. There are thousands of them in those trees and they are huge. Or could it be that they don’t feed on blood? But if not, then what do flying foxes eat?

Photo: Nice Capture of a Flying Fox In Full Beauty
Photo: What Do These Flying Foxes Eat?

I first wondered about what Flying Foxes ate when I strolled through the Royal Independence Gardens with Ha. I was on a mission to take some pictures of them flying during daytime hours and as I kept being focused on how many of them there are, I couldn’t help but search for signs of blood bath these presumed blood suckers cause in the neighborhood every night. And I really didn’t have to go far to stumble across dozens of dead birds scattered across the greens of the gardens.

Photo: Dead Bird Underneath Bat Trees, But It Was No Bats That Killed It
Photo: Dead Bird Underneath Bat Trees, But It Was No Bats That Killed It

From the beginning, I was pretty darn sure that all those dead birds were the work of flying foxes but when I noticed the sales of live birds taking place behind the Preah Ang Chek Preah Ang Chorm Shrine and saw what happens to those birds after release, I have quickly ditched my initial guess. No, those dead birds in the garden were not the doing of Fruit Bats, those died because of selfish human behavior.

In my continuous search for answers to the “What Do Flying Foxes Eat?” question, I realized that perhaps there is a reason why Flying Foxes are also known as Fruit Bats. Could the word “Fruit” just before “Bats” signify what these flying foxes eat? It sure could and it does. Flying Foxes don’t feed on blood of living creatures. Flying Foxes eat fruit, hence the name “Fruit Bats”. Jungles of South East Asia are full of mango trees, banana trees, guava trees or papaya trees. Fruits from these trees are a staple of their diet.

Photo: Fruit Bats Sleeping Upside Down
Photo: Fruit Bats Sleeping Upside Down

When night falls on Siem Reap and you look up, you will see swarms of Flying Foxes filling up the sky as they are migrating towards their feasting grounds. There are endless clouds of them flying against the darkening sky. Now I understad that this is their daily (or should I say nightly?) rite. They don’t sleep where they eat. They prefer to fly the distance to munch on fresh fruit and then fly the same distance back to spend the day sleeping atop the trees of downtown Siem Reap. They don’t care about insects, birds or other living creatures. That’s perhaps the reason why none of the locals heed them in any way. Despite their intimidating size, they are harmless to humans. They are harmless to all living things. The only people who don’t like Flying Foxes are farmers who are not amazed when their fruit gets eaten overnight. And because of their size, one flying fox can down several fruits in one sitting. But it’s the numbers of bats in each colony that makes them a nightmare for farmers. It doesn’t matter how many fruit trees you have, if it gets marked as feeding grounds by a colony of flying foxes, you could find your trees stripped of all fruit overnight.

First Monkey Encounter

I have never seen a monkey out in the wild before. My only previous encounters with monkeys were when I was taken to the ZOO by my parents. And I’m not a big fan of the ZOOs because I don’t believe in imprisonment of animals for people’s entertainment. Captive animals lose many of their natural traits and don’t behave the same way they do in the wild. Hence encountering my first monkey that was not caged was a big deal for me. It was so much more shocking in a way because even though my first monkey encounter in Cambodia featured an actual wild monkey, this particular specimen did not act wild at all. This appeared to be an aged monkey and acted like an aged human.

Photo: Young Monk and his Friend Monkey Share a Banana at Wat Damnak
Photo: Young Monk and his Friend Monkey Share a Banana at Wat Damnak

I was still at Wat Damnak temple grounds trying not to get fried by scorching Cambodian sun. The chants from Buddhist gathering at temple’s Vihara (prayer hall) could be heard from everywhere because of the loudspeaker broadcast. I was almost done taking inconspicuous pictures when I noticed this young monk standing outside with banana in his hand which he handed to the monkey sitting at his feet. Monkey took it off his hand with his hand and munched on it like they’re best buddies. The human like behavior of that monkey was bewildering.

Photo: Monkey Turned to See if I'm Still Following Him Around
Photo: Monkey Turned to See if I'm Still Following Him Around

Granted, I only had my wide angle lens on me because extreme heat makes it impossible to carry extra baggage and since I really wanted to take pictures of my first monkey encounter, I had no choice but to walk up to the couple sharing the banana. It was interesting to watch how monkey turned his head the same way any human would. As I got closer and got the camera at the ready, the monkey gave me that look of “what the hell are you taking pictures of me eating for?” My amazement escalated.

Photo: Monkey Kept Pulling Faces at Me to Show His Dismay
Photo: Monkey Kept Pulling Faces at Me to Show His Dismay

As I was closer, I noticed indescribable dexterity this monkey had in his hands. He had fingers similar to human ones and used them to peel the banana peel off to get to chewy mass inside. When he was done, he simply turned around and started quietly walking away. I swear if he could talk, I would hear him say: “Screw you, man. Staring at me as I’m trying to eat!”

Photo: When He was Done with Banana, Monkey Picked Up Some Juicy Leaves to Flush it Down
Photo: When He was Done with Banana, Monkey Picked Up Some Juicy Leaves to Flush it Down

I followed the monkey as I really wanted a picture but in order to get any done, I needed to get really close to him (disadvantage of not carrying around the telephoto lens). His every reaction was identical to a reaction of a human. It simply kept blowing me off my feet. Perhaps it’s because we don’t have monkeys in Canada where I come from so seeing an animal whose behavior resembles human so closely was astounding to me. I was being rude by shoving my camera in his face and he was moving away from me to let me know that he does not appreciate being photographed at such close range by a guy he’s never met before. If there was a human in his place, I’d be getting precisely the same type of response. Are monkeys really this close to humans? Unbelievable! All this time I felt like saying: “You got me man. I almost believed you were a real monkey. Now take off that costume and quit playing one, will you?” But the fact was – there was no masqueraded man inside a costume. This was an actual, real monkey. They are closer to humans in their behavior and perceptions of the surroundings that I had ever realized. Wow!

Photo: This is Where Monkey Stopped One More Time, But Seeing me Come to Him Again, He Climbed the Tree and Got Off my Sight
Photo: This is Where Monkey Stopped One More Time, But Seeing me Come to Him Again, He Climbed the Tree and Got Off my Sight

Sticky Rice Cakes

As I was walking around Wat Bo with my camera hung around my neck, I noticed smoke rising from underneath the metal roof at an open area of the temple grounds. There were several middle aged men underneath the roof and given that it was September when temperatures in Cambodia reach extremely high levels, I did not envy them one bit as they were not only heated by the sun, but also by the fire in the midst of the roofed area. Wat Bo is a fairly quiet pagoda which doesn’t see many foreigners so my presence was instantly noticed. Even though this was only my second day in Cambodia, I was already used to the fact that Cambodians gawk at all foreigners as if they walked around with monkey on their heads, so I vastly disregarded the stares, however I was attracted by the smoke and wanted to see what they were doing under that roof so I came closer, camera still hanging off my neck.

Whats Cooking Under This Roof?
Whats Cooking Under This Roof?

Language barrier was impenetrable as all of the locals under that roof were aged males who could not even read or write in their native tongue, nevermind understanding foreign languages. Since my understanding of Khmer language was virtually none, any form of verbal communication was impossible. It hindered me not.

I noticed a pile of green rolls on an improvised table next to the fire. These people were obviously cooking something and wrapping it up in banana leaves to serve as food. Smiles on their faces made me feel welcome so I took pictures of what was going on and one of the men picked up one of those a leaf wrapped rolls, unwrapped it and handed it to me with a smirk and a sign to give it a bite.

Generous and Welcoming Buddhist Cambodians Offering Me a Sticky Rice Cake
Generous and Welcoming Buddhist Cambodians Offering Me a Sticky Rice Cake

Once unwrapped, I could see that it’s a rice roll that perfectly sticks together and is wrapped tightly in a banana leaf giving it almost an impression of vacuum packing. As I learned later, these were Sticky Rice Cakes (referred to in Khmer as nom ansom) and they can really stay preserved inside that banana leaf for a good month without going bad, even when stored in permanently hot environments (Most rural Cambodians don’t even have electricity, nevermind fridges).

I took that Sticky Rice Cake that was so graciously offered to me and gave it a bite. It tasted awful. It was bland and tasteless. It felt like some mass in my mouth, but it had no taste. They obviously did not add any salt or other seasoning to it so the mass lacked any taste whatsoever. Inside the rice roll was a filling. The one I started to eat had meat filling, quite possibly pork – from the looks of it. The filling was as tasteless as the rice. I was not used to eating tasteless foods prior to coming to Cambodia which made it increasingly difficult for me to enjoy it. Regardless, these men who were cooking Sticky Rice Cakes within the Wat Bo temple grounds obviously did not sport the financial riches and simple foods, such as a Sticky Rice Cake was often all they could afford to eat. And they graciously offered me one to eat right on the spot. This act of unconditional generosity was so heart-warming I got over the taste lacking sticky rice and continued pretending that I enjoyed offered cake immensely.

Pile of Sticky Rice Cake Wrapped in Banana Leaves to Preserve Them Without Storing in a Fridge
Pile of Sticky Rice Cake Wrapped in Banana Leaves to Preserve Them Without Storing in a Fridge

I wanted to ask what exactly these sticky rice cakes were, what exactly the filling was, how exactly they make them and whether I can leave a contribution to Wat Bo but language barrier made it impossible. And before I knew it, the man who unwrapped the sticky rice cake I was eating, already had a small plastic bag filled with about a dozen of those sticky rice cakes and handed it to me with a smile. I was trying to explain that I could not possibly accept that, seeing how these men barely had enough for themselves, but as I was talking, they kept smiling at me like the nicest people in the world, not understanding a single word I said. I did not know what to do next.

Wrapping Up Sticky Rice Cakes at Wat Bo
Wrapping Up Sticky Rice Cakes at Wat Bo

I really did not want to leave with so many rice cakes from people who obviously don’t belong anywhere near the middle class, yet I had no means to explain this to them. On the other hand, simply leaving the bag there and taking off would be extremely rude as it may make them feel like I despise them and/or their food. Without the ability to explain my thinking in words, I was in a dead lock. Last thing I wanted was to offend these genuinely nice people who don’t have much for themselves, but did not hesitate to share with a random stranger. This pile of sticky rice cakes they have just cooked may have been the food for all of the pagoda for a month. Now I was gonna leave with a dozen of the cakes I didn’t even like the taste of. But they looked so happy to have shared it with me I could not disappoint them.

I spent a little bit of time with them, slowly biting off from the sticky rice cake I had unwrapped trying to make it look like I enjoyed the taste and later made a move towards main Wat Bo pagoda to take pictures of it. I took the plastic bag filled up with still wrapped sticky rice cakes, made a hand sign that I’m going that way to take some pictures and took off without saying good bye. I still had it in my mind that as I’m taking pictures of the pagoda, I will work out the strategy to give these sticky rice cakes back to them as they’d serve them much better than they would serve me.

I Could Not Even Finish the Rice Cake I Started Because of Lacking Taste of the Mass
I Could Not Even Finish the Rice Cake I Started Because of Lacking Taste of the Mass