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Do bats and birds ever fight?

Obviously they are nocturnal and diurnal, respectively, and have different roosting/nesting habits, but they do compete for many of the same food resources.

Has there ever been any observation of crepuscular turf wars or clashes? And if not, why not?

Whatever the answer it might still make for a fun (bad) made-for-TV sci-fi movie.

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Categories: Animals.

Tags: birds, Behaviour, bat.

 

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Jon-Richfield says:

Not turf wars or the like as far as I have ever heard, but it seems as though most of the reason that bats are nocturnal is that they cannot compete well with birds in the daylight. Bats that are starving sometimes will continue to hunt food in daylight, but then they are at major risk from birds of prey.

On the other hand, no bird can rival bats' ability to navigate and manoeuvre in the dark. Many of the encounters between bats and birds are at twilight. For example, birds of prey commonly catch an evening meal when vaste hordes of bats emerge from their caves in regions of central America.

In contrast, pied crows in Africa have been known to hunt fruit bats where they roost during the day. At night vampire bats may suck the blood of large roosting birds, such as chickens, generally without causing serious harm, but various species of "false vampire bats" (non-blood-suckers, very cute; look them up!) will eat small birds among their other prey such as mice. This is nothing personal though; they also eat other bats, much as we might eat chimpanzee as well as chicken or lobster.

It doesn't strike me as a good candidate for TV personally, but it could hardly be worse than a lot of the garbage presented in the guise of dramatised nature material nowadays. Maybe as animation...?

In contrast, the real bat stories are varied, fascinating and touching, but I suppose that is no attraction; it requires an audience with an attention span.

Pity...

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Tags: birds, Behaviour, bat.

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posted on 2010-07-04 09:15:21 | Report abuse


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