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This is a ghost bat, Diclidurus albus. It's pure white. At night by flood light, ghost bats look really bright. They are like snowballs in the black sky, like fairies dancing up in the night sky. |
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Pteronotus parnellii: Here's a double-lipped bat. The lower lip is divided into two lips. The actual mouth is here and look where the eye is. It appears to be inside the ear, basically, because the posterior lobe of the ear projects so far forward. Also, notice the shape of the ears, like elf ears. Most bats have rounded ears. |
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Mormoops ["more-moe-ops"] megalophylla: This is another weird bat face. It's hard to tell where the actual mouth is. Clearly, its eye appears to be in its ear.
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Anoura caudifera: The long-nosed bat, a nectar feeder, has a tongue that will protrude at least as far as the length of its head. |
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Cynomops greenhalli: On the other hand, here's a short-nosed bat with very deep rostrum.
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Eumops glaucinus: Another short-nosed bat intrigued me with its ear shape. If you look closely in these ear flaps, you will see that this bat actually has three canals leading into the meatus of its ear. How these canals function and why it needs three are unknown. This is a very fast flying bat; it flies like a bullet. I am exploring the possibility of casting the ears in latex so we can play with the canal shapes and directions. But that's another project I haven't gotten to yet. |