Skip to main content

Old World fruit bats

Pteropodidae

Photo by Dan Doucette
Published on Project Noah
Zoom
NominateNominate for Wildlife Photograph of the Month
reportFlag Spotting

1.19082, 34.4198

Field Notes

Description:

Small bats. Hundreds of eyes looking at me.

Habitat:

Cave on Mount Elgon.

Notes:

I spent the last night of my 5 day trek camped in the mouth of Mude Cave. I explored deeper into the cave to find tons of bats on the cave ceiling. When most people see this photo, they think it is the night sky, not bat eyes!

Species ID Suggestions

Old World fruit bats

Pteropodidae

Comments (22)

I've added this to the mission and removed the second photo. I will make a spotting of that separately. I'm going to leave it as unknown without a more specific ID which will be impossible to get. This one will remain a mystery. Thanks a lot Gilma!
Love that shot. I went in to look because the picture look as if it was just black?!... then... surprise!!!! bat eyes. Thanks for sharing, dandoucette.
AfriBats, Thanks for your comment about white nose syndrome. It's good to hear that it hasn't become a problem in Africa. The impact here in North America is the stuff that scary is made of....
Please consider adding this to the Bats of Africa mission http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/24647059
You might wish to create a new spotting for one of the 2 pictures and add IDs accordingly. Re white nose syndrome: as far as we know, the disease is currently only hitting North America, and we can only hope it won't hit other continents. Think about chytrid fungus in amphibians!
Thanks for the info AfriBats, I didn't know I had two different species here. Thanks Gordon. I don't know if there are any issues or not. I didn't hear about anything when I was there.
What a great experience! Dan, do you know if there is any issue with white-nosed syndrome in Africa?
The eye shine in the first pic is that of fruit bats - either Rousettus aegyptiacus, Stenonycteris lanosus, or Myonycteris angolensis. The 2nd pic shows a bent-winged bat, genus Miniopterus.
This must be a great experience being there.
Thanks Achmmad and Christy. Pitch Black is a cool movie.
Amazing! Night sky with stars ... I just remember about Pitch Black!
Thanks everyone! @BalincaguinConservancy, I'm having a hard time finding those 5! Hahaha!
I wonder how that would have looked like with using a flash - hundreds of red eyes staring at you :) Nice spot, Dan!
Dan thats a loads of pair of eyes, and they are all staring at you!
EEEGAD! That's a LOT of eyes!! Spooky!! *~*
Seriously, Dan? Eyes?? No way!

Accelerate our Mission to Photograph 
Every Species in the World!

Image
Butterflies icon

Wildlife Community

Wildlife Community

Join a worldwide community passionate about wildlife and nature!

Join Project Noah

Nature School

Nature School

Transform your green space into a curiosity-creating nature classroom!

Visit Nature School

Wildlife Game

Wildlife Game

Defend wildlife throughout the jungle in thrilling nature game!

Play Baboon