The East African epauletted fruit bat is found in East Africa, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
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| East African epauletted fruit bats. |
It is brown and has white tufts at the base of the ears. The male has white epaulettes and I'm not sure if the ones I've photographed are males or not, as there are really two sets of white at the base of the ears and one of the sets may be the epaulettes.
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| I believe the outer set of white tufts may be the epaulettes. |
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| They also have white fur on the legs. |
That is my best guess based on other pictures I've found on the internet. As the name implies, it feeds on fruit as well as flowers, nectar and pollen. We found these two bats resting in the branches of a tree in Karatina, Kenya, not too far from Mount Kenya.
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| Quite pretty brown fur. |
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| Very distinctive orange eyes. As I moved around under the tree to photograph them, they followed me with their eyes and would rotate their bodies. |
These bats were a bit creepy. Their pupils were almost impossible to see, and so their eyes looked veiled, like a blind man. I'm sure it was the daylight. In the dark, the pupils must grow much larger.
ReplyDeleteI'd hate to run into one of these, but they're quite interesting on your post...
ReplyDeleteFascinating Animals!
ReplyDeleteWould you add your excellent bat photos as a citizen-science observation to the AfriBats project on iNaturalist?:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.inaturalist.org/projects/afribats
AfriBats will use your observations to better understand bat distributions and help protect bats in Africa.
Please locate your picture on the map as precisely as possible to maximise the scientific value of your records.
Many thanks!