Since this week saw the home video release of Dario Argento's take on history's most iconic vampire tale, titled Dracula 3D, it seems only fitting that we shine the spotlight on bats here on FEARNET today. But not just any bats.... the world's largest bats!
They're called Megabats, and so large are they that they're oftentimes referred to as flying foxes. The largest recorded species of Megabat, giant golden-crowned flying foxes, are native to forests in the Philippines, and their wings span impressive lengths of up to six feet. At their largest, these creatures of the night tip the scales at nearly three pounds, primarily gobbling down fruits and sucking the sweet nectar out of flowers.
Unlike most bats, Megabats do not see through echolocation, but rather through their keen sense of smell. The belief is that these bats are so large that the echolocation mechanism inherent in bats just simply doesn't work, as it's too energetically expensive for them to handle.
The world's smallest bats? Those would be Kitti's hog-nosed bats, which measure a mere inch in length and weigh no more than .09 ounces!
Check out video of Australia's black flying foxes below, courtesy of National Geographic!