Old World fruit bats (Pteropodidae)

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Photo by Dan Doucette

Published on Project Noah

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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

AfriBats

+ vote

Comments (22)

Dan Doucette

Thanks Afri, I've updated.

Dan Doucette

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!

Gilma Jeannette Ospino Ferreira-Norman

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.

Gordon Dietzman

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....

KarenL

Please consider adding this to the Bats of Africa mission http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/24647059

AfriBats

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!

Dan Doucette

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.

Gordon Dietzman

What a great experience! Dan, do you know if there is any issue with white-nosed syndrome in Africa?

AfriBats

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.

Dan Doucette

It was awesome Luis.

LuisStevens

This must be a great experience being there.

Dan Doucette

Thanks Achmmad and Christy. Pitch Black is a cool movie.

ChristyHolland

Wow!! Very impressive! Starry sky indeed!!

achmmad

Amazing! Night sky with stars ... I just remember about Pitch Black!

Dan Doucette

Thanks everyone! @BalincaguinConservancy, I'm having a hard time finding those 5! Hahaha!