used to reside right in the middle of the mission
school but the trees were cut and they moved further
out on tree overhanging gardens. With the help of
the local carpenter, a large 2 m scaffold was built
to enable the camera to be level with the colony,
making sure no banana tree or cassava was going to
be damaged. Across the track from the scaffold are
a few house with locals keen to chat or help
whenever. One is even playing the guitar.
The bats are the perfect example of a migratory
exodus: in the search for food, they moved to
the Solomons islands where they ended up staying.
As a result, they evolved independently and now
look very different from those in Queensland for
example. They have become an endemic and have
developed various light blond and red tones of fur.
The males exhibit rather large genitals. Its seems
that they spend most of their time licking their
dick, in fact - not much else to do hanging off a tree
all day! They don't do much at all, hang down, fight
a little bit, sleep when it is cool enough (before
or after rain, before sunset) with their wings wrapped
around their face or vent themselves by flapping their
wings when the sun comes out. It seems that the entire
tree is pulsating with venting bats, then. Comes dark,
exactly at 7:45 (!!!), they leave the tree to forage
for fruit in the gardens. That's the hard part of the
film: trying to shoot a bat eating a fruit with
infrared camera. Rather a needle in a haystack!
Pics to come..
