The Ghost of the Mines

Explanation: This week begins with Halloween, and what better excuse to present ... a ghost !

Actually, this is no phantom, but it is nocturnal and is quite elusive.

This is a ghost bat ... a furtive spectral form that dashes past your head in the dark of night.

This week we have staked out the entrance to the defunct Bamboo Creek Tin Mine, in a back corner of remote Litchfield National Park, which is situated in the "Top End" portion of Northern Territory, Australia.

This is one of the few colony sites of ghost bats. Well past dark, they start to move toward the mine tunnel entrance, and individually exit into the night like some stealth missiles.

At this time of year, this might be a nursery colony mostly inhabited by females and their young. The first bats to emerge may be the adult females, dashing out to quickly catch flying insect prey.

We watched a number of bats not just emerge from the tunnel, but also dash back inside ... perhaps females with food for their young, or just returning to their cave feeding perch as they do.

Adults also eat geckos, frogs, and even small birds and small mammals, including other bats!

Appropriate to this holiday, ghost bats are also known as ... Australian giant false vampire bats.

So, Happy Halloween ... from all the ghosts -- and vampires -- of the night ... !

Information:
     Menkhorst, P., and F. Knight. 2001. A field guide to the mammals of Australia. Oxford University Press, 269 pp.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week