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Old World fruit bats

Pteropodidae

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!

1 Species ID Suggestions

AfriBats
AfriBats 10 years ago
Old World fruit bats
Pteropodidae


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22 Comments

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 10 years ago

Thanks Afri, I've updated.

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 10 years ago

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.

Gordon Dietzman
Gordon Dietzman 10 years ago

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
KarenL 10 years ago

Please consider adding this to the Bats of Africa mission http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/2464...

AfriBats
AfriBats 10 years ago

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
Dan Doucette 10 years ago

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
Gordon Dietzman 10 years ago

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

AfriBats
AfriBats 10 years ago

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
Dan Doucette 11 years ago

It was awesome Luis.

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

This must be a great experience being there.

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 12 years ago

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

ChristyHolland
ChristyHolland 12 years ago

Wow!! Very impressive! Starry sky indeed!!

achmmad
achmmad 12 years ago

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

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 12 years ago

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

LarsKorb
LarsKorb 12 years ago

I wonder how that would have looked like with using a flash - hundreds of red eyes staring at you :) Nice spot, Dan!

Can anyone find the five that are cross-eyed?

Gina9210
Gina9210 12 years ago

Dan thats a loads of pair of eyes, and they are all staring at you!

SarahWhitt
SarahWhitt 12 years ago

EEEGAD! That's a LOT of eyes!! Spooky!! *~*

peter
peter 12 years ago

O_O wow

Dan Doucette
Dan Doucette 12 years ago

I know, eh?! That's what everybody says!

Carolina
Carolina 12 years ago

Seriously, Dan? Eyes?? No way!

Dan Doucette
Spotted by
Dan Doucette

Uganda

Spotted on Dec 16, 2008
Submitted on May 16, 2011

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