“Bamboo bat!” My eyes gleamed when I heard that and I rushed for the bats, which were hanging in cloth bags.
I gently rubbed my fingers on the outside of each bag and picked the one with the smallest bat. I delicately removed the flying mammal, holding it with just the tips of my first three fingers. This was no ordinary bat. Its head was flat as if slammed with a shoe! It also had suction pads on its thumb and toes to help it cling to and sleep inside thin, hollow bamboo culms. The bat in my hand was an evolutionary marvel. The lesser bamboo bat Tylonycteris pachypus marked the beginning of a successful night. After it, eight other species flew into our nets in quick succession. Borneo was beginning to justify itself as a chiropterologist’s dream destination.
In August 2015, I was in Sarawak to attend the 3rd Southeast Asian Bat Conference organised by Universiti Malaysia (UNIMAS), Sarawak, and Southeast Asian Bat Conservation Research Unit (SEABCRU). After four intense days of talks, discussions and workshops with the most renowned bat biologists of the world, we were off on a bat lover’s ultimate pilgrimage – Gunung Mulu National Park.
This story is from the August 2017 edition of Sanctuary Asia.
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This story is from the August 2017 edition of Sanctuary Asia.
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