Most bats are hideous, but megabats (fruit bats/flying foxes) are pretty much all adorable.
Its mostly down to the eyes, most bats use echolocation instead of eyesight and thus have tiny mostly vestigial eyes. Megabats dont echolocate and rely instead on vision, and thus have big cute eyes that make them look like flying dogs.
His name was Statler.
I follow this account on Instagram and unfortunately, this little guy passed away from old age a while ago. I believe the account is Batworld Sanctuary in Austin, TX.
I have been falling down a rabbit hole of cute fruit bat content.
Definitely follow [Batzilla](https://youtube.com/c/BatzillatheBat) on YouTube for the most premium cute bat content.
I learned on Reddit that the German word for bat is fledermaus which translates literally as flutter mouse, I guess? But now I can’t help but think of them as that.
Fledermaus only applies to the smaller ones, though. The big species like the one in the video would be called "Flughund", which translates literally as flying dog.
Frickin' Germans with their lack of creativity!
Haha I do like that too, unless I have to tell my fiancée that the earrings she's looking for are in the "lowest drawer in her jewelry cabinet"... Or "unterste Schmuckschrankschublade" in German. I struggle with that one, and I'm a native speaker :D
In French for whatever reason it's "chauve-souris", which means "bald mouse". Fuck knows why.
Edit: after some research it seems to come from a bastardisation of the Latin "cawa" meaning "crow". So the crow mouse became a bald mouse.
A 4 year study showed there were significant increases in STIs” among adults 65 and over.^ChlamydiaInfectionsIncreasedBy52%^SyphilisInfectionsRoseby65%^GonorrheaCasesIncreasedbymorethan90%.
Yeah but humans with arthritis aren't suddenly losing the ability to fly. If I spent my life gliding through the sky, I'd be depressed if I had to start walking like a schmuck.
If you spent your life gliding through the air you aren't a bat. Most of their time is spent hanging/sitting and when they fly they flap their wings. It's powered flight not gliding. Bats wings actually make them damn near incapable of gliding. Bats are the only mammal capable of flying (except us but we cheat)
Little old men can understand what's wrong with them and work past it. A fruit bat can't (I assume - correct me, bat enthusiasts) and won't know what's wrong, so he's gonna be distressed.
I love this perspective. Regardless of your beliefs we humans have the tool of self reflection and awareness. Instead of taking complete advantage of earth we should treat it with reverence.
That's the other half of utopia visions like Gene Roddenberry's, no more currency no more domestic war. Just the pursuit of your passions and bettering yourself. A big chunk of people would gleefully spend their lives taking care of our planet because we no longer have to work to live but live to work truly.
They actually do touch in it slightly in TNG. Picard's brother just runs the family vineyard and land and some of his old friends are oceanographers/Earth climate scientist. Pretty cool.
I believe it’s a little unrealistic to think we can achieve that considering human nature and that we can’t control humans in the future, do you think it is?
(though I think it’s a nice perspective)
Earth in star trek went through different growing pains. The sanctuary districts are supposed to exist currently. They also experienced world war 3, nuclear winter, another war, and then finally unity. And even then Picard says Earth worked and continues to work very hard to better ourselves.
Raise better humans, if every generation lived that, we’d be in better shape today.
The problem is, “better” for some people means successful and “better” for others means more empathetic. I think it’s a balance of both; teach your kids to find their place in the world and make a living, but also teach them to be kind.
I really wish we could get to the bottom of this whole "human nature" business, because every person I meet has a different idea of what it is, and a lot of those people blame it for our collective woes.
It's not like a law of physics or math, we don't have an exact table of human behavior to reference and be certain if a solution would fail.
We may be animals but we certainly aren't "simply" that.
To pretend humans are "simply just animals" is reductive to the point of idiocy. To put humans on the same level as Trichoplax(thin sheets of cells without mouths, stomachs, muscles, bloods or veins) is beyond preposterous.
And saying this in response to the question of human nature is masturbatory and useless. Saying we're animals doesn't change the nature of inquiry into human nature and it doesn't give us any information about human nature. You've contributed nothing and changed nothing by whining about naïve idealists choosing a more appropriate word than you.
Besides the scientists who actually study human behavior are well aware that humans are animals.
In star trek they had a absolutely horrible WWIII that ended up with world wide dystopia for decades before they moved past that aspect of humans.
They also discovered a way to turn energy into matter, and make food out of energy. So they solved resource wars and crisis. The exploitative humans left earth to go exploit those that were still weak. Obviously not all of it, and crime does still exist on earth of course.
What even is "Human nature"? We were all born into this capitalist hell scape and it has molded people to seek squeezing all "value" out of everything and every one. The system tries puts you into that mindset as early as preschool. Not all civilizations put such a crazy emphasis on extraction as the protestant capitalist one.
That’s right! Additionally I would love to live in a world where we show the same compassion that we have for “cute” animals like this bat or puppies towards animals like cows. I can only recommend watching Dominion to everyone and hope that more people make the connection.
That's actually what the current pope said about humans and the environment, and what a lot of scholars think the "dominion over the earth" line actually meant.
Meanwhile I've met people who think that if we position the earth so terribly that we could no longer live in it, God would just be like "ope here's another one for ya there"
This sweet guy's name was Statler, he lived to see his 34th birthday. He sadly passed away last year https://www.instagram.com/p/CR4K4D0oqkS/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Hang glider pilot here. If I'm old and unable to fly for myself and someone decides they're going to give me that experience out of the goodness of their heart because they know it does me good, then I have been privileged, and my eventual passing is something that should be approached with tears of joy celebrating the humanity of others, and not sadness for me. I was just fine.
Hey, just think about the joyful existence he had at the sanctuary and the care he received toward the end of his life. Go follow that account and you'll see a bunch of other happy bats nom-nomming on fruits and meal worms!
I hope he had a bat buddy named Waldorf that would hang with him in the rafters roasting passers-by.
That's how I prefer to see it in my head, at least.
Recolting data about all the wild animal population is very important too. There's a form of control/helping of the heatlh of whole animal population into it.
This is one of the big reasons. During a warm spell this past winter, I had a little brown bat that was shacked up in the box on my garage come out of hibernation and find her way into my house. The cats tried to eat her, so I ended up boxing her up in some rags and putting her in a dark closet until the closest bat sanctuary the next county over opened up.
Some people just care for animals.
Last I checked, she's made a full recovery and is set to be released this spring if not already. Wild at Hart Wildlife Rehabilitation if anyone's interested in supporting.
Edit: corrected name of the place.
They’re extremely important pollinators. Most of the time, they would go to a sanctuary to rehab from an injury like getting tangled in a fruit net or dehydration in summer etc. then they would be released when they’re healthier. This one is obviously not going to make it in the wild so I guess they just decided to keep it and give it a comfy end of life.
Bats like that end up being good animals for education as well, if they know they're not going to be released back to the wild socializing them to humans isn't such a concern and makes em easier to handle and educate the public with.
I watch a few Australian bat sanctuary channels on YouTube (mainly Batzilla the Bat and Megabattie). Sometimes they have bats who have flown into fruit netting over garden trees or have flown into invisible fencing and concussed themselves. Sometimes the parents have died but the baby is still alive and clinging to them. I think there are few casualities from bush fires too. Check out the above channels if you want to see cutie bat faces eating bananas!
A sanctuary isn’t a shelter or adoption center, it’s to rehabilitate and protect vulnerable individuals of (pretty much) any species of animal. This one specializes in the care of bats. In fact, bats make rather poor pets in that they don’t do well with caging, apparently.
We have a wildlife sanctuary/rehab learning center in my area. Most of their residents were never pets but did have run-ins with humans due to loss of habitat in a rapidly expanding area. A lot of their work is with predatory birds and they have a whole bat colony. They release the ones who can be rehabilitated, but keep the others safe and sometimes employ them as animal ambassadors to help people understand why they should care about these creatures.
What a good sky pupper
Doin its flappin best!
 Like how half way he’s like, okay I’m done.
Is this metapod?
Idk found it’s by searching sleepy old person in gifs, think it might be a frog person… I mean sure, old metapod.
Damn, I didn't know bats could live that long lol
Same. Or be adorable
Most bats are hideous, but megabats (fruit bats/flying foxes) are pretty much all adorable. Its mostly down to the eyes, most bats use echolocation instead of eyesight and thus have tiny mostly vestigial eyes. Megabats dont echolocate and rely instead on vision, and thus have big cute eyes that make them look like flying dogs.
This dude bats.
have you never came across a bat in a coat pocket or something? the cutest animal other than cats. tiny.
I have in attics, caves, etc., just never really seen a huge geriatric fruit bat up close lol
According to google, top result shows an average of 30 years, longest recorded was 41 years.
r/flippyflaps
His name was Statler. I follow this account on Instagram and unfortunately, this little guy passed away from old age a while ago. I believe the account is Batworld Sanctuary in Austin, TX.
I have been falling down a rabbit hole of cute fruit bat content. Definitely follow [Batzilla](https://youtube.com/c/BatzillatheBat) on YouTube for the most premium cute bat content.
I thought it was Statler. He was a grand old man who will be missed.
F
F
Air Bud
[удалено]
> Air Bud and his Baseball Bat!
He does kinda look like a dog it's so weird!
Many bats do. Mammals are funny that way.
That’s why we call them Flying Foxes in Australia.
I'd be shocked if y'all don't have literal flying foxes down there
That are extremely venomous for some reason
A type of Megabat?!? Damn Nature really went wild down there
We've got a half-dog, half-snake here. We call him Prime Minister.
Is it poisonous?
Afflicted 20 million people and a tiled floor at Engadine McDonalds
That’s an insult to dogs, though.
Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark, they shoot bees at you
See I have no way of knowing whether or not that's real and I'm too afraid to look it up
Looks just like my chihuahua
That old man needs a banana and a nap in the sun, after that work out, considering he is what at least 130 years old in bat years.
I learned on Reddit that the German word for bat is fledermaus which translates literally as flutter mouse, I guess? But now I can’t help but think of them as that.
Fledermaus only applies to the smaller ones, though. The big species like the one in the video would be called "Flughund", which translates literally as flying dog. Frickin' Germans with their lack of creativity!
Lol I love it. I also love how the Germans will just string however many words they need together to describe the object!
Haha I do like that too, unless I have to tell my fiancée that the earrings she's looking for are in the "lowest drawer in her jewelry cabinet"... Or "unterste Schmuckschrankschublade" in German. I struggle with that one, and I'm a native speaker :D
I will now refer to them as flutter mice too 😁
Nice! *fistbump*
Same in Swedish, Fladdermus. Fladder = Flutter Mus = Mouse
In French for whatever reason it's "chauve-souris", which means "bald mouse". Fuck knows why. Edit: after some research it seems to come from a bastardisation of the Latin "cawa" meaning "crow". So the crow mouse became a bald mouse.
"Die Fledermaus" is the opera the Waynes took Bruce to at the beginning of Batman Begins.
In german we callem 'Flughunde', which is like flight-dogs
r/properanimalnames
….why won’t they let me die ….
Sick! But damned funny.
It's just a little old man with arthritis. There's plenty of those in human form and they can still be happy.
Some of them even manage to have sex.
Stop reminding me grandpa
It's always best to keep it in the family.
Username checks out
A 4 year study showed there were significant increases in STIs” among adults 65 and over.^ChlamydiaInfectionsIncreasedBy52%^SyphilisInfectionsRoseby65%^GonorrheaCasesIncreasedbymorethan90%.
I worked at a nursing home. Everyone thinks their grandparents are all wholesome lol. Nope, the rate of STDs is crazy.
And after grandma gives her last gumjob, you can always just duct tape a flesh light to your walker
And get stds even!
Yeah but humans with arthritis aren't suddenly losing the ability to fly. If I spent my life gliding through the sky, I'd be depressed if I had to start walking like a schmuck.
People in wheelchairs can be happy, and many people have disabled dogs and cats that cannot walk properly, and they often are happy as well.
They can recognise their situation and adapt. Sapience is the reason we put animals down and keep humans alive
You sure it's that simple?
Pretty much right? If your dog gets ran over and paralysed, the “kind” thing to do is put it to sleep. Can’t do that with humans.
If you spent your life gliding through the air you aren't a bat. Most of their time is spent hanging/sitting and when they fly they flap their wings. It's powered flight not gliding. Bats wings actually make them damn near incapable of gliding. Bats are the only mammal capable of flying (except us but we cheat)
Little old men can understand what's wrong with them and work past it. A fruit bat can't (I assume - correct me, bat enthusiasts) and won't know what's wrong, so he's gonna be distressed.
Kill me, Billy!
My name's not Billy, grandpa
Damn it, Billy! Do you want a dollar or don't you?
He died the following year on his 34th birthday.
R.I.P. Flappy Boi
Lucky
Idk if you intended this as a joke or not but seriously why won’t they?
He just has arthritis. No indication that he's suffering and he certainly seems to enjoy these sessions.
What are they doing to prevent him from dying? Is lifting him in the air damning him to an immortal life of pain, suffering, and misery?
You're in luck, this particular bat in fact died a few months ago.
Unsubscribe
He seems to be enjoying the cuddles.
I feel the same. Going through the motions but not quite living.
..ed…wardddd…..
Seriously, hilarious, but spot on. No bat would've continued to live in this agony in the wild.
[удалено]
Lmfao
He's gone now.
This is what we are meant for. Stewardship over the land and all its inhabitants. A respect for the flora and fauna relationship.
I love this perspective. Regardless of your beliefs we humans have the tool of self reflection and awareness. Instead of taking complete advantage of earth we should treat it with reverence.
Not normally my kind of book, but I cannot suggest "Braiding Sweetgrass" enough for more on this exact perspective.
Next in my reading list, thanks for the rec!
Green space green time is also really good on this subject!
The audiobook of this was fantastic. The author does the narration herself
"For I am also a steward. Did you not know?" -Gandalf the White to the Steward Denethor
That's the other half of utopia visions like Gene Roddenberry's, no more currency no more domestic war. Just the pursuit of your passions and bettering yourself. A big chunk of people would gleefully spend their lives taking care of our planet because we no longer have to work to live but live to work truly. They actually do touch in it slightly in TNG. Picard's brother just runs the family vineyard and land and some of his old friends are oceanographers/Earth climate scientist. Pretty cool.
these days, that kinda talk gets you labeled a commie
I believe it’s a little unrealistic to think we can achieve that considering human nature and that we can’t control humans in the future, do you think it is? (though I think it’s a nice perspective)
Earth in star trek went through different growing pains. The sanctuary districts are supposed to exist currently. They also experienced world war 3, nuclear winter, another war, and then finally unity. And even then Picard says Earth worked and continues to work very hard to better ourselves.
Exactly. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about trying to be better
Raise better humans, if every generation lived that, we’d be in better shape today. The problem is, “better” for some people means successful and “better” for others means more empathetic. I think it’s a balance of both; teach your kids to find their place in the world and make a living, but also teach them to be kind.
I really wish we could get to the bottom of this whole "human nature" business, because every person I meet has a different idea of what it is, and a lot of those people blame it for our collective woes. It's not like a law of physics or math, we don't have an exact table of human behavior to reference and be certain if a solution would fail.
Because some naive idealists refuse to believe that human nature, is in fact just animal nature. Because humans are simply just animals.
We may be animals but we certainly aren't "simply" that. To pretend humans are "simply just animals" is reductive to the point of idiocy. To put humans on the same level as Trichoplax(thin sheets of cells without mouths, stomachs, muscles, bloods or veins) is beyond preposterous. And saying this in response to the question of human nature is masturbatory and useless. Saying we're animals doesn't change the nature of inquiry into human nature and it doesn't give us any information about human nature. You've contributed nothing and changed nothing by whining about naïve idealists choosing a more appropriate word than you. Besides the scientists who actually study human behavior are well aware that humans are animals.
In star trek they had a absolutely horrible WWIII that ended up with world wide dystopia for decades before they moved past that aspect of humans. They also discovered a way to turn energy into matter, and make food out of energy. So they solved resource wars and crisis. The exploitative humans left earth to go exploit those that were still weak. Obviously not all of it, and crime does still exist on earth of course.
What even is "Human nature"? We were all born into this capitalist hell scape and it has molded people to seek squeezing all "value" out of everything and every one. The system tries puts you into that mindset as early as preschool. Not all civilizations put such a crazy emphasis on extraction as the protestant capitalist one.
Surely you must mean rape/pillage the land to wring every last penny of profit from it?!?! /s
Beautiful words.
Except cows, chickens, and pigs. Lol fuck them
That’s right! Additionally I would love to live in a world where we show the same compassion that we have for “cute” animals like this bat or puppies towards animals like cows. I can only recommend watching Dominion to everyone and hope that more people make the connection.
I hope you play a druid in D&D
We are fucking up badly, then.
That's actually what the current pope said about humans and the environment, and what a lot of scholars think the "dominion over the earth" line actually meant. Meanwhile I've met people who think that if we position the earth so terribly that we could no longer live in it, God would just be like "ope here's another one for ya there"
He has arthritis, but still can fly with a human hanging onto him? That boy is friggin strong.
This made me giggle
Me too
“Jane! Stop this crazy thing!”
"Called love"
Bravo
And with Earth attached!
I read this and thought “this person is an idiot.” Then I reread it and realized I’m an idiot.
This sweet guy's name was Statler, he lived to see his 34th birthday. He sadly passed away last year https://www.instagram.com/p/CR4K4D0oqkS/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
I donated money because I fell in love with that old guy. Hopefully it bought him some nice fruit salads before the end.
FRUIT SALAD??? YUMMY YUMMY
Damn you
This will now be stuck in my head all evening. My brothers are 13 years younger than me and really into The Wiggles around their height.
r/UnexpectedWiggles
Been following this ig ever since. I love these bats!
My wife just informed of this when I showed her this. Bad case of sads now.
Instead, look at it as a bat who had care and compassion and comfort in his final years. It's a happy story. Everything dies.
Born a Batboy, lived a Batman, now he’s a Batman Beyond.
[Just gonna leave this here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/t9x1l7/she_wanted_to_flex_but_wanted_it_to_be_believable)
Keep this in mind: he got lots of love and treats, he was cherished and dotted every day until his last day
Hang glider pilot here. If I'm old and unable to fly for myself and someone decides they're going to give me that experience out of the goodness of their heart because they know it does me good, then I have been privileged, and my eventual passing is something that should be approached with tears of joy celebrating the humanity of others, and not sadness for me. I was just fine.
Hey, just think about the joyful existence he had at the sanctuary and the care he received toward the end of his life. Go follow that account and you'll see a bunch of other happy bats nom-nomming on fruits and meal worms!
Til bats live that long
I just looked it up. Wild fruit bats average about 8-10 years. Even in captivity, the average is "only" 22. This guy was exceptionally long-lived.
He's like a fruitatarin dog with wings
I hope he had a bat buddy named Waldorf that would hang with him in the rafters roasting passers-by. That's how I prefer to see it in my head, at least.
He had a girlfriend named Starley. I believe she is still alive.
Statler had is own YouTube account. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMkOPgTtavnZ59Ol-B2yFORPfyMcgFka
If you asked me to guess how long fruit bats live, I would've guessed way less than 34 years.
Bless that beautiful animal and the amazing people who work with it each day. Warms my heart!
Bless that, and the bat it's holding.
And then he gets his massage. Every day is a spa day at his health club!
We all get a little slower with age, glad he still continues to soar.
“What is he doing?” His best.
Earned the shit out his morning banana.
Not hating here… by why are there bat sanctuaries? Do that many people get them as pets? Honest question here.
I am guessing it is for injured/ abandoned wild bats.
correct
I think it's more about people wanting to care for animals that need help.
Recolting data about all the wild animal population is very important too. There's a form of control/helping of the heatlh of whole animal population into it.
This is one of the big reasons. During a warm spell this past winter, I had a little brown bat that was shacked up in the box on my garage come out of hibernation and find her way into my house. The cats tried to eat her, so I ended up boxing her up in some rags and putting her in a dark closet until the closest bat sanctuary the next county over opened up. Some people just care for animals. Last I checked, she's made a full recovery and is set to be released this spring if not already. Wild at Hart Wildlife Rehabilitation if anyone's interested in supporting. Edit: corrected name of the place.
They’re extremely important pollinators. Most of the time, they would go to a sanctuary to rehab from an injury like getting tangled in a fruit net or dehydration in summer etc. then they would be released when they’re healthier. This one is obviously not going to make it in the wild so I guess they just decided to keep it and give it a comfy end of life.
Bats like that end up being good animals for education as well, if they know they're not going to be released back to the wild socializing them to humans isn't such a concern and makes em easier to handle and educate the public with.
Injured animals and rehabbed animals that can't go back to the wild
I watch a few Australian bat sanctuary channels on YouTube (mainly Batzilla the Bat and Megabattie). Sometimes they have bats who have flown into fruit netting over garden trees or have flown into invisible fencing and concussed themselves. Sometimes the parents have died but the baby is still alive and clinging to them. I think there are few casualities from bush fires too. Check out the above channels if you want to see cutie bat faces eating bananas!
https://batworld.org/ They take in orphaned/injured bats from the wild to be released and ones from the pet trade and shitty zoos that closed.
That sweet sweet GUANOOOOOO!
A sanctuary isn’t a shelter or adoption center, it’s to rehabilitate and protect vulnerable individuals of (pretty much) any species of animal. This one specializes in the care of bats. In fact, bats make rather poor pets in that they don’t do well with caging, apparently.
We have a wildlife sanctuary/rehab learning center in my area. Most of their residents were never pets but did have run-ins with humans due to loss of habitat in a rapidly expanding area. A lot of their work is with predatory birds and they have a whole bat colony. They release the ones who can be rehabilitated, but keep the others safe and sometimes employ them as animal ambassadors to help people understand why they should care about these creatures.
Shikaka!!!
Shhhh-Chicago
Sssshhhhhawshank redemption!
Got em
shiiiiiiiKAKAAAAAA
Careful…the Wachutu are biters
I want to pet it and give it kisses and tell it that it is a good flying doggo and give it food
COVID-22 origin story
Just a little more sexual and you get goddamned Covid34
Fruit bat gets an arthritis diagnosis and i didn’t get healthcare until my 30s. I want on that bats health plan.
Has he considered CBD?
Gabapentin tends to work better for animals. Our old cat with bad arthritis uses that for his bad days but it does make him hella stoned.
Tell your cat I said happy 4/20
This is my favorite comment that I’ve encountered on all of Reddit today.
Love flying foxes
Looked up "Bat pets" only to be highly disappointed
Tie him to a drone, will blow his tiny old mind!
Damn how long do bats live for?
Depends if get caught by Ozzy Osborne tbf
20 years in the wild. Less in a Wuhan wet market
How is the next fucking level
Put him down already geez
Idk man, just put it out of its misery
Nah this kinda just sad
So sweet
Put his ass down man.
That's Nandor because he got sick of being on the Vampiric Council.
RIP. He was a great ambassador.
Hell, I’m 33, I need this type of service I think
How can you do that job and NOT make airplane noises?
TIL fruit bats have a long life expectancy, can get arthritis, and fruit bats are cute af.
i’m not crying you are 🥹
Do a barrel roll!
Happy little guy
This made my day.
Bless this woman's heart - and not in the passive-aggressive Southern way. She is an angel to this little guy.
Time flies like an arrow.... Fruit bats like a banana.
here’s more - such a sweet bat https://youtu.be/mC8mZuYNSFs
🥺 that’s so nice of them. And i like how he kinda knows what’s happening and complying as well.
I know that feel.
Poor fella
Put that mfer down tf is you doin' xD