 |
| new arrival #1 |
Meet Billy the Brown Long Eared bat...how cute is he?!
The bits sticking up just outside his eye, that look like Doberman's ears, aren't ears...they're tragus, Billy's equivalent of the little bits that stick out just in front of your ears.
His ears are the large, back-swept curved structure just behind the tragus - when resting, he curls them back in this way. When he's alert, they stand up tall, several times the height of his head.
Relatively speaking, it's as if you put your arms up straight behind your ears...he's a little marvel!
Once he's caught some food, he curls his ears up like little devil horns...he's just the coolest little dude...
If you take a look at the video below, you'll see him moving his ears some.
You'll also see him eating live meal worm, which is a standard food for bats in captivity. He eats loads of them - up to 15 in a single meal, and 2 meals a day...hence there being so much poo around his vivarium.
Unfortunately, Billy has a tear in his wing, and one of his wing bones (actually a finger bone) is poking out. But it's tiny, thinner than a hair...or at least, it appears to be. I don't know, do I?!
Anna's the batty one around here...(but that's a whole 'nother blog entry).
Anna is looking after him for a few days or so on behalf of another bat foster carer.
Overall Billy seems very alert, active, healthy, and very well. Anna is licensed to handle him, but she has her work cut out...he tried to fly at one point, and can be quite wriggly.
We're hoping to get better photo's with a decent camera, over the next few days.
Watch this space!
Wow. Brill!
ReplyDelete