Fine-Feathered Snack

A bat's tracker documents a dramatic midair hunt

-  -Meghan Bartels

FOR THE NEARLY THREE-YEAR-OLD female bat soaring into the Spanish sky in March 2023, it was just another night of striving to feed itself. But the bat's overnight exploits were about to become the stuff that scientists' dreams are made of.

The greater noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus) wore a high-tech tag recording its behavior. From that recording, researchers reconstructed a dramatic, and scientifically valuable, exploit: the bat pursued, killed and proceeded to eat a migrating European robin (Erithacus rubecula) in midair while echolocating to navigate.

Greater noctules are among the largest and most endangered bats in Europe. Their usual fare is substantial insects such as beetles and moths. But in previous work, scientists analyzing the DNA in bat poop had been surprised to find evidence of greater noctules feasting on songbirds, too, during spring and fall migrations, when the birds are active at night rather than during the day.