{"id":212457,"date":"2025-10-09T19:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T19:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/212457\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T19:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T19:25:07","slug":"grisly-recording-reveals-bat-catching-killing-and-eating-robin-mid-flight-animal-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/212457\/","title":{"rendered":"Grisly recording reveals bat catching, killing and eating robin mid-flight | Animal behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bats are generally viewed as harmless, if spooky, creatures of the night. But scientists have revealed a more savage side, after witnessing a greater noctule bat \u2013 Europe\u2019s largest bat species \u2013 hunting, killing and devouring a robin mid-flight.<\/p>\n

The grisly recording reveals the bat as a formidable predator, climbing to 1.2km (4,000ft) before embarking on a breakneck-speed dive in pursuit of its prey. On capture, the bat delivered a lethal bite and subsequent chewing sounds, recorded between echolocation calls, indicated that the bat consumed the bird continuously during flight for 23 minutes without losing altitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fascinating that bats are not only able to catch them, but also to kill and eat them while flying,\u201d said Dr Laura Stidsholt, a co-author of the research based at Aarhus University. \u201cA bird like that weighs about half as much as the bat itself \u2013 it would be like me catching and eating a 35-kilo animal while jogging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Billions of birds seasonally migrate at night and over long distances at high altitude and their flight paths are known to intersect with bat hunting grounds. Dr Carlos Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez, of the Don\u0303ana Biological Station, Seville, first made the case that birds were an important food resource during the pre-hibernation \u2013 autumn \u2013 and gestation \u2013 spring \u2013 periods after observing feathers in bat faeces 25 years ago. Other scientists were sceptical, however, and in the intervening years Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez and colleagues have deployed surveillance cameras, military radar and ultrasound recorders attached to hot air balloons in a quest for smoking gun evidence.<\/p>\n

In the latest study, greater noctule bats were taken from nesting boxes in southern Spain<\/a> and fitted with tiny \u201cbackpacks\u201d containing instruments to record acceleration, altitude and audio, including echolocation calls. The data revealed two instances of bats mounting attacks on migratory birds, one of which was successful.<\/p>\n

This bat was observed to climb to an altitude of 1.2km, before encountering its prey. \u201cThe bat is flying in stealth mode,\u201d said Stidsholt. \u201cIt\u2019s night-time, the bird can\u2019t see it coming, it can\u2019t hear the echolocation sounds. The bat has an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

On close approach \u2013 perhaps alerted by the bat\u2019s wingbeats or its shadow \u2013 the bird suddenly entered a downward spiral. The bat was observed to follow in a cat-and-mouse chase covering more than 1km, during which the microphone recorded 21 distress calls from the robin. As the pair approached ground level, a final shriek was heard from the robin, followed by 23 minutes of chewing sounds from the bat as it continued to fly at low altitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a human perspective, I didn\u2019t feel good about it,\u201d said Stidsholt. \u201cBut, on the other hand, the bat is a very rare species and it isn\u2019t doing very well in southern Europe due to droughts and wild fires so we want this species to have a good meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez had collected, and stored in a freezer, severed songbird wings found under bats\u2019 hunting grounds. X-ray imaging and DNA analysis of 11 wings suggested that the bats bite off and discard the wings \u2013 probably to reduce weight and drag. The researchers believe that the bats then stretch the membrane between their hind legs forward like a pouch, allowing them to eat the rest of the bird mid-flight.<\/p>\n

Elena Tena, of Do\u00f1ana Biological Station and a lead author of the study, said: \u201cWhile it evokes empathy for the prey, it is part of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings are published in the journal Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bats are generally viewed as harmless, if spooky, creatures of the night. But scientists have revealed a more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-212457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}