By TOSHIYUKI TAKEYA/ Staff Writer
July 27, 2018 at 10:00 JST
Editor's note: This is part of a series of videos offering an up-close perspective on the animal kingdom. A special 360-degree video camera system was set up in zoos and other facilities to show how the animals view their world as they interact.
Also visit our special 360-DEGREE LIVES page (http://t.asahi.com/360lives), where you can watch all the previous videos.
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OSAKA--Black creatures fly quickly around the dimly lit room, making fluttering noises.
Looking at the bats through the glass of the Nocturnal Animal House at the Osaka Tennoji Zoo in the city’s Tennoji Ward, you might feel the presence of a vampire.
But, in fact, megabat species such as Egyptian rousettes eat apples, bananas and other fruits, as well as eating flowers and licking nectar from them.
That’s why they are also called fruit bats.
According to veterinarian Shin Nishioka, 49, Egyptian rousettes kept at the zoo have big, round eyes and look extremely cute. Indeed, they look like squirrels when they are seen carefully through the camera.
But the Egyptian rousettes are cautious. When the camera was placed softly near a fake rock in the exhibition room to make it less conspicuous and not to disturb them, all the bats flew away and didn’t come back. And when the camera was hidden in a pile of assorted fruits on a plate, they didn’t dare to come close.
“It is the only member of the megabat family that makes ultrasonic sounds for echolocation,” Nishioka said. “They may be reacting to the electrical wave from the camera.”
After patiently waiting for some time, the bats rallied around the fruits one after another.
Egyptian rousettes are nocturnal and live in forests and savannas in Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt and elsewhere. They act in groups and normally hang upside down to rest, but they right themselves to pee and defecate to avoid the excrement from spilling over their bodies.
Bats are the only mammals that can fly, the expert added.
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Egyptian rousette bats hang upside down at the Osaka Tennoji Zoo in Osaka’s Tennoji Ward. (Toshiyuki Takeya)
