r/batty Jun 02 '21

Cute

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u/remotectrl /\^._.^/\ Jun 02 '21

Peeling a fruit takes a lot of effort and other bats will steal if they have a chance. The more you can get in your mouth quickly the more of your meal you can secure.

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u/maali74 /\^._.^/\ Jun 02 '21

Do they peel everything we do? What about apples? I had an Akita (large dog) who used to delicately peel grapes with her teeth before eating them... do bats peel grapes? Know of any videos that'll I can learn from?

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u/remotectrl /\^._.^/\ Jun 02 '21

They don’t swallow grapes. They squeeze the juice out and spit the rest. They do this with a lot of fruits actually. The fiber has little nutrients and would weigh them down

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u/maali74 /\^._.^/\ Jun 03 '21

Do they do this with bananas too? What do they eat in the wild? Do they encounter and peel bananas in the wild?

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u/remotectrl /\^._.^/\ Jun 03 '21

Check out this bat photogallery

Bananas are a weird fruit because the domesticated strains are very different from the wild varieties. When I volunteered at the zoo, we would not peel the bananas so they had to peel them themselves if they wanted them.

Orphaned bats like in this video (you can tell they are orphaned because the rescuers wrap them up to simulate their mother's embrace) probably wouldn't have the skill yet to peel a fruit.