Megabattie

How many grapes can a bat fit in its mouth at once?

This is Clawed, a Grey-Headed Flying-Fox, who wanted to turn me into confetti at rescue, but once I started feeding him he stopped disparaging my ancestors, stopped trying to separate my fingertips from their attachments, and even started eating nicely without snatching. Eventually he turned out to fit quite a lot more than 13 grapes into his mouth, but when I took the video this was as far as he had gone on his world record breaking attempt to fit maximum grapes in his mouth without spitting out the skins and fibre. I loved how his demeanour changed after he got comfortable with my care; I loved his stubborn refusal to let any of the fruit of the vine leave his mouth, and how he stuffed his cheeks until his eyelids were dragged down with the expansion of his chipmunk cheeks. Sometimes it just makes me happy to watch this and remember this quite individual character during the short time he was in my care. Tolga Bat Hospital takes donations for our batties. Tolga is an awesome place in Far North Queensland, which has charity status. By sending donations to them, they get a percentage (and deserve every cent) and they can allocate money to me for batty expenses without it becoming part of my income stream (which makes tax time difficult). https://tolgabathospital.org/donate/ Mention Megabattie or Meg in the PayPal message box and the money will find its way to me. If no message box appears, please email Jenny to tell her that the money is for me. IMPORTANT: If you pay through the PayPal Giving Fund, can you please email Jenny with the AMOUNT DONATED and the name under which you have donated, OR just forward along the PP receipt. The Giving Fund doesn’t charge any fees (so the bats get more money) but PP doesn’t itemise out the amount, they just send a total every month, and we don’t know if the money is for Tolga or for Megabattie. Here’s Jenny’s email. [email protected]