It is quite common throughout its area ranging from the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, across forest and savanna zones of sub-Saharan Africa.

From October to end of December every year, in the largest migration of mammals on the planet, up to 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats congregate in Kasanka National Park, Zambia, roosting in a 2 hectares (4.9 acres) area of Mushitu forest each day.

At night the bats leave the roost in smaller groups to find food by sight and smell.

They are the main agents of seed dispersal for the increasingly rare and economically significant African teak tree Milicia excelsa.

It appears mainly in Africa, mostly among the sub-Saharan climates, in many forest and savanna zones, and around the southwestern Arabian peninsula.

[citation needed] The straw-coloured fruit bat is hunted as bushmeat in West and Central Africa.

[9] In 2011, it was estimated that about 128,400 straw-coloured fruit bats are traded as bushmeat every year in four cities in southern Ghana.