Locally known as Horsfield’s fruit bat, Larger Dog-faced Fruit Bat or Cecadu Pisang Besar in Malay, Cynopterus horsfieldii is a medium-sized plant-visiting bat belonging to the family Pteropodidae (Tan et al., 1999). It is also known as the most common and abundant species in Peninsular Malaysia (Hasan et al., 2012; Jayaraj et al., 2012). In mainland South-East Asia, this species is distributed in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. It is also found in Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the adjacent islands (Francis, 2008).

C. horsfieldii has a typically dog-like face with large eyes, and simple and relatively small ears. Their wings are usually broad and mostly without fur. Also it has grey-brown upperparts, slightly yellowish-brown underparts, and a dark reddish-brown collar in adult males which is paler in females (Francis, 2008). The immature bat has dull buff or grey fur. The edges of the ears and outline of the wing-bones are white in colour. Cynopterus horsfieldii has broader and squarer cheek teeth than other Cynopterus bats, with distinct cusps or ridges on the lower premolar and first lower molar. Its larger body size with an average mass of 57.9 g, distinguishes it from C. sphinx (Greater Short-nosed Fruit Bat) which is smaller and has more rounded cheek teeth (Francis, 2008).