<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/23/tiny-australian-southern-bent-wing-bat-flies-up-to-150km-a-night>
"A tiny, critically endangered bat – roughly the size of a matchbox – can fly
about 150km in a single night, new research has found.
Southern bent-wing bats roost in caves in south-west Victoria and south-east
South Australia. They fly out at night in search of food, eating about half
their body weight in insects.
Little is known about these foraging flights, so Victoria’s Arthur Rylah
Institute tracked bats from the Portland maternity cave 350km west of
Melbourne, to see where they went.
In summer-autumn, some bats flew from Portland to the Naracoorte maternity
caves in South Australia or to Victoria’s Warrnambool maternity caves – about
156km and 97km away, respectively – in a single night. The bats mostly returned
on subsequent nights via a second direct, single-night flight.
Those vast distances were “pretty amazing for a bat that’s less than the size
of a mouse”, said wildlife ecology scientist Amanda Bush from the Arthur Rylah
Institute.
To put this in perspective, the average person commutes 16km to work in
Australia, usually with the help of a vehicle."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
