I nearly died from cuteness brain damage...

KevinCU

Senior member
Jan 14, 2009
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wrttt:

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lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
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Bats are cool. I was cutting down a Christmas tree a few years ago, and kept hearing a hissing noise. I didn't pay close attention to it, cause the sound was indistinct, and it didn't seem like anything to worry about. When I was most of the way through the tree, a bat dropped down, and scared the shit out of me :^D I put it into another tree, and checked the one I had thoroughly. No more bats. That would have been interesting if I got it in the house :^D
 
May 11, 2008
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Knowing that these animals can function as reservoirs for extremely deadly viruses (Ebola, Marburg)... I sure hope the people who took care of it made sure it did not carry any diseases... But since the mother came from a zoo, the little one was highly likely not acting as a pathogen reservoir. But do not take these critters home from the wild. Rabies is not uncommon and lethal to humans.


not cute, not sexy :

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DaWhim

Lifer
Feb 3, 2003
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404 cuteness not found. it is just a bat, what are they gonna do after? release it in the wild?
 

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
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Oct 9, 1999
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Can it play third base? The Phillies could use a good bat at that position.
 
May 11, 2008
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Bats look like the spawn of Satan, but I'm glad that some variants eat the hell out of mosquitoes.

Indeed.
Although some variants also have some amazing capabilities :
This bat seem to have extraordinary sonar capabilities. Maybe even on the same level of prey detection with dolphins and whales. But probably exceeding.
Rhinolophus ferrumequinum : The nose has a special shape to aid in echo location.
China&






specimen.jpg


Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, the greater horseshoe bat, has one of the largest geographic distributions of any bat, ranging from Europe and northern Africa in the east to China, Korea, and Japan in the west. This subspecies, R. f. nippon, is from Japan. Like other members of the genus Rhinolophus, these bats specialize in hunting insects in complex habitats (in and near vegetation). They have an unusual, highly specialized echolocation system that takes advantage of the Doppler shift to separate emitted pulses (calls) and returning echoes in frequency rather than in time. These bats simultaneously emit long, constant frequency calls and listen to returning echoes, and analyze the resulting auditory data to build a complex, dynamic auditory map of their environment. An anatomical feature associated with use of Doppler shift echolocation is an extremely large cochlea, in which the basal turn is tuned to be especially sensitive to the frequency of returning echoes, which are lower frequency than the calls emitted by the bat.

http://www.digimorph.org/specimens/Rhinolophus_ferrumequinum/head/
 
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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,411
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Normally, I'd be in this thread flaming the bisexual-bipolar british moron...but in this case, he's kind of right. Bats are ugly as hell, and this one is no exception, but raising one by hand like this is great. The whole "twist/rock myself to sleep" is pretty cool.

:thumbsup: to the zoo folks for taking this on.