Chiroptrivia 2009
"Life is a beautiful and strange creature that appears at a window, flies swiftly through the banquet and is gone."
The Venerable Bede
So this section is dedicated to the strange and wonderful things which make bat group members laugh, agree with or wonder at. .If you have something you'd like to post here, quotations, facts, trivia or whatever email us
Posted October 2009 |
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The Daily Mail published photos of a Natterer's bat feeding over a pond . It was misidentified as a Daubenton's
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A particularly gruesome story in New Scientist reports that Blue Tits in Hungary have been found predating on bats - a far remove from taking the tops off milk bottles |
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and if that weren't bad enough, this bush squirrel has also been reported to feed on bats. Some British bat workers are wondering if british squirrels feed on bats. |
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Bats are regarded as harbingers of good fortune. Their highly decorated kites often reflect this . This kites show the 5 bats of good fortune . The peaches are a symbol of longevity. Click here lor more of these |
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The world's smallest, and one of the rarest, bats in the bumblebee bat Also known as Kiti's Hog nosed bat they are found din Thailand and weigh only 2 grams |
Photos from Daniel Hargreaves Facebook album Used with kind permission ( and much admiration) |
Centurio senex, the wrinkled bat is regarded by many as the world's ugliest bat. Now researchers have found that he bites hard into the bargain. Weighing 17grams, range shaped skull gives it extra biting power , some 20% more than other similarly sized species More |
| Posted July 2009 | |
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This beautiful piece of Aboriginal cave art depicts white striped a bat which is no longer found in Australia. The suggestion is that in the past these bats may have ben blown in [rom places like Sulewesi |
Heavy footed cave bats and light touch tree roosting bats
illustration Joan Childs
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Scientists at Brown University, recently filmed Cynopterus brachyotis, a tree-roosting bat common in tropical parts of southeast Asia species of bat as they swooped toward a latticed landing pad. It did half-backflip as it swooped upward to the landing site, landing as its hind legs and thumbs touched the pad simultaneously — a four-point landing.The landing is hard with an impact force more than four times the species’ body weight Carollia perspicillata and Glossophaga soricina two tree roosting bats , approach their landing target with a vertical pitch and then, at the last instant, yaw to the left or to the right — executing a cartwheel of sorts — before grasping the landing pad with just their hind legs and make a much softer landing with an impact force of only one third of their body weight bat You can see film of this and other related events at http://tinyurl.com/cqw6b3 |
Posted April 2009 |
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The Stowaway Bat
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In March 2009 a free tailed bat made the news when it clung tenaciously to the side of the Discovery Space Shuttle as it was launched. Its fate in uncertain We're characterizing him as unexpected debris and he's probably still unexpected debris somewhere,' said launch director Mike Leinbach after the take-off., For more photos see the Daily Mail Report This triggered the formation of the Brian the Bat Foundation where a new version of David id Bowie's space Oddity soon posted |
Video of Bats flying in a wind tunnel |
Fantastic video of bats flying in a wind tunnel (The commentary is in Italian) Click to view |
Is this the world's ugliest bat?
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Centurion senex is certainly on of the strangest bats on the planet Folds of naked skin surrounding the nose and mouth of the broad, flat face give the bats a "wrinkled" appearance. Males have additional skin folds on the face which contain scent glands. It is even more unusual as it roosts in the open. To keep an eye for predators, it has evolved wings with clear piece of wing membrane, so it can wrap itself in its wings AND see what’s happening. You can see the open wings below |
The world's noisiest bats  |
Two species of tropical bats thought to issue feeble calls actually send out echolocations that peak at an ear-splitting 110 decibels. That's about as loud as a rock concert from the front row and intense enough to cause permanent ear damage |
Posted January 2009
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One of the winners of 2008's Wildlife photographer of the year was Carsten Braun's .photograph of a mouse eared bat |
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Equally impressive was a photo of a bat taken within a tree trunk by Christian Zeigler who spent long hours in a very smelly tree to get this |
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Much excitement in September 2008 when a particoloured bat was found in a pillbox in Norfolk. It is thought it was blown over from the continent in a storm Photo Steve Ganlett Another particoloured bat was found in London in 2009. and taken into care . see recent pictures and read More |
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It was once thought that spells written in bat's blood would be more potent. (The kit illustrated here makes it clear it does not contain real bat's blood) |
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Plants have evolved complicated mechanisms to attract bats to pollinate them. In addition to a strong sulphury scent, scientists are now discovering that their shape helps the bats find their way to the nectar. The photograph on the left is from
Nathan Mucchhala's website about at nectar feeding bats The physics of this ultimately defeats me, but you can read the papers for yourself
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It was Nathan Muchhala who first reported that Anoura fistulata had a tongue 150% the length of its body - see Nathan Mucchhala's website
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