While photographing gray-headed flying foxes in Sydney, I captured some pics that show how bat wings are just skin extensions over their outsized arms and fingers. And for some reason it really creeps me out! You can see a relatively normal-sized humerus where the bicep is and then a really long forearm leading to a hand with a clawed thumb and four Xenomorph-like digits connected with skin supported with a network of blood vessels.
Bats are amazing flyers. You can see how it flaps its "hands" which provides lift with both sides of its wings as they deform with each wingbeat. The outer edges fold in with the upstroke providing lift from the outside of the folded wing.
There's just something about seeing the skeletal structure that is creepy.
The leathery wings don't help, ha. Photographing these enormous fruit-eating bats was high on my to-do list when I visited Australia. I have always wanted to see them. Australia has five species of fruit bat.
Notoriously, bats sleep upside down and flying foxes are no exception. But the way they do it is remarkable. They fly over a branch and snag it with their meathook feet and then pendulum upside down in one graceful motion.
The bats wrap themselves tightly in their leathery wings to keep warm in a chilly rain. This is no doubt where Dracula got his cape!
Despite my aversion, these flying foxes are about the sweetest creatures you will ever meet. And I was completely charmed by them. They are pretty adorable.
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