Flat Bat?

[Graeme]

Roadkill.
Puzzled me at first - but that's a bat ear??

(12) Fruit Bats in Australia - YouTube

 

[GrauGeist]

Looks like it.

Grey-headed flying fox, perhaps?

 

[Airframes]

The 'radar' didn't work then !

 

[at6]

Oh no!!!!!!!! Not poor Flying Fox of the Yard?

 

[mikewint]

Saw mostly the smaller!! Fruit Bats but every once in a while these BIG MOTHER Flying Foxes...whole trees covered in them

 

[Marcel]

Where did you see those, Mike?

 

[KiwiBiggles]

This is one of those threads you visit just to see what ads Amazon comes up with. Bats? Baseball!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Where did you see those, Mike?

He didn't, at least not the second one. It is from an internet hoax site. It does indeed show a real bat, but it is a forced perspective shot in order to make it appear larger than it actually is.

 

[Marcel]

Still: Megabat - Wikipedia

Most fruit bats are larger than insectivorous bats or Microchiroptera, however there are a number of small fruit bats also. The smallest species is 6 cm (2.4 in) long and thus smaller than some microbats, for example, the Mauritian tomb bat.[6] The largest attain a wingspan of 1.7 m (5.6 ft), and weigh as much as 1.6 kg (3.5 lb).[7] Most fruit bats have large eyes, allowing them to orient themselves visually in twilight and inside caves and forests.

A bat with a span of 1.7m is quite big.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Still: Megabat - Wikipedia


A bat with a span of 1.7m is quite big.

Absolutely they are very big.

 

[mikewint]

Where did you see those, Mike?

To answer your question, in Vietnam. As to pictures, while I did take some I had little time to take pictures or space to carry a camera or document what I did see. So those flying foxes looked exactly like that, i.e. a FOX - FLYING and they looked that big to me, wingspans near 5ft (1.5m) and yes entire trees filled with them.

 

[gumbyk]

They'd come out at sunset in their thousands in Paua New Guinea, mostly appeared between the two sizes in the pictures above.
Saw plenty in Fiji too, quite a bit smaller though.

 

[at6]

Roadkill.
Puzzled me at first - but that's a bat ear??

View attachment 494059
View attachment 494060

(12) Fruit Bats in Australia - YouTube

Scrape the excess fur off and you get bat jerky. Good eatin'. Ummmmmmmm uuuuuuummmmmmm yum!

 

[Marcel]

To answer your question, in Vietnam. As to pictures, while I did take some I had little time to take pictures or space to carry a camera or document what I did see. So those flying foxes looked exactly like that, i.e. a FOX - FLYING and they looked that big to me, wingspans near 5ft (1.5m) and yes entire trees filled with them.

I can understand that you didn't carry a camera there. Must have been quite a sight. According to Wikipedia, wingspan can be up to 1.7 meters. That's buzzard size here.

 

[mikewint]

I did from time to time. Other guys also took pics and from time to time would share copies. I did not have a Fox Bat pic anywhere and that pic looked pretty close to correct size. Most Vietnamese were about 5' 5" (1.65m) so the FB's wingspan was pretty close to their height. The weirdest thing was the lack of feathers so the wings were like thin black leather that were somewhat translucent in daylight. Made for a VERY weird sight in the sky.
Here (Arkansas) we have large numbers of Turkey Vultures (buzzards) with 6ft (1.8m) wingspans. With the lake and high ridges there are almost always several in the sky riding the thermals