Beautiful bats in the Brai-shade (pt 1)

In Skukza camp in the Kruger national park there are a number of thatched sun shades for people to rest under and take shelter from the sun whilst enjoying a snack from the cafe, breakfast from the little restaurant or something grilled off the Brai....and under one of those thatched sun shades the chairs and tables are ringed around the edge of the shade leaving and odd gap in the middle....and if one should venture under that shade and look up above that middle one will see a rather unusual sight:



These are epauletted fruit bats, (I'm guessing Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat, Epomophorus wahlbergi based on what I can work out online) and the white dots you can see are not eyes but the epaulettes. These are false eye spots in essence, a simple defence mechanism designed to confuse predators. The real eyes are a beautiful brown....

I know some people don't get on with bats but I think most people visiting the camp were a little transfixed by these guys. They're big but not huge, have cute faces and do cute things like yawn so it's easy to like them....

Tomorrow you'll see a bat so cute I defy anyone to not fall in love with it...