Bats, frogs and videotapes
A tungara frog sits in a pool of rainwater in a gutter and calls for females. The Animal Behavior Lab at Salisbury University has designed a robofrog that can mimic all three modalities of the tungara's courtship display. A frog-eating bat is attracted to these displays and flies out of its roost to inspect the artificial frog.
In total darkness, it approaches the frog, which comes with a backpack of bite-sized raw fish, and attacks on the wing. These stunning images, taken at 1500 frames per second with the help of infra-red illumination, display the bat's deadly flight skills - ferocious yet elegant.
In the wild, these bats can hunt large prey. Here we see a fringe-lipped bat return to its roost with a big frog. It immediately starts to eat it (sound on!).
When we take bats into the flight cage, we can get an even better look at how they gnaw at their catch until every last morsel has been finished - except stomach and or gall bladder, that is. The bat holds the prey in its jaws, supported by one or both thumb claws.
When bats catch big prey like this, they often have to take a little digestion nap midway through eating. They keep the rest of their meal in their jaws while they sleep and continue to eat about an hour later.