Bats, frogs and videotapes
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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.
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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.
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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!).
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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.
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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.
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