Why Kluang Is Named After Bats

Ask why the town is called Kluang and you will get the same answer everywhere: keluang, the old Malay word for flying fox.

The large fruit bats that give the town its name were once common across the lowland forest and orchards of central Johor. They are big — wingspans over a metre — and they roost communally, which makes a colony hard to miss and easy to name a place after.

The municipal council took the obvious step and put a bat on its emblem, which means Kluang is one of the few Malaysian towns whose official heraldry features a mammal most people find unsettling.

Are there still flying foxes in Kluang?

Fewer. Habitat loss across the district has pushed the colonies back towards the remaining forest reserve, and they are no longer the everyday sight they were within living memory. Around the fringes of Gunung Belumut and the less-developed parts of the district, they persist.

Dusk is when you would see them, in loose formation, heading out to feed.

The other explanation

There is a competing story that the name refers to the shape of the surrounding hills rather than the animals. It is less well supported and considerably less fun, and the council emblem has effectively settled the argument.