Hammerhead fruit bat: these animals turned their face into a megaphone for insane screams (7 photos)

There are still plenty of romantics in the world who are ready to sacrifice their comfort for the sake of their loved ones. What are you willing to do in order for your soulmate to hear the most beautiful serenade? The hammerhead fruit bat, for example, called upon the very power of evolution to bring love to his bat princess.





A promising male with an operatic voice is looking for a soul mate.

Differences in appearance between females and males of the same species is called sexual dimorphism, and in hammerhead fruit bats it is very pronounced. The entire body of males is built in such a way as to turn them into small winged mouthpieces. Their larynx and air sacs are 3 times larger than those of females. The vocal apparatus is so massive that all other organs are constantly in a compressed format.



Seryoga, don’t push so hard, my eyes will fall out of their sockets!

This modification was not enough for the male fruit bats, so they also decided to reshape their heads. Yes, yes, this blurb, in place of which a muzzle is located in ordinary animals, was modified by the hammerhead fruit bat into a megaphone. Inside the large square nose there is a wide sinus, which acts as an additional sound amplifier.





Yes, the boys were screaming, I was just hanging next to them.

But the fruit bats, apparently, decided not to bother with the rest of the body. They have no tail at all, and the structure of the wings cannot ensure long flight - the animals are too heavy. Despite the fact that the wingspan of bats is quite large - 90 cm! But the fruit bat eats quite a lot: the weight of an adult male reaches almost half a kilo, while females weigh half as much!



You can chain my body. But the power of my voice cannot be contained!

But fruit bats really need to fly. Their diet consists exclusively of fruits. There are quite a few fruit trees in Central Africa, but the males are very selective in food. For the sake of juicy deliciousness, they are ready to go into uncharted territories and fly up to 10 km per night! Females prefer to use already explored routes, even if this means not the most delicious dinner.



What strange bananas you have in Africa... Singing ones!

Males use all their resources, built up over the years of evolution, during the dry season. Hammerhead Don Juans, up to 100 in number, gather on tree branches and begin to scream heart-rendingly. The females, like true deathcore fans, rush to those trees where the scream will be louder. According to the classics, the most successful males are the most vocal ones; there are only 6% of them in the team. And they become the fathers of the majority of newborn mice - 79%, to be precise.



So that's what a bastard was screaming under the windows all night!

The meeting of “lovers” lasts a measly 30-60 seconds, after which the couple separates forever. The male calls for a new lady, and the female flies off into the sunset and begins to prepare for the appearance of offspring. After six months, the mother gives birth to 1-2 cubs.



The females, to be fair, also look strange. Also with nipples in the armpits!

There is no exact data on the natural enemies of hammerhead fruit bats. But it is known that due to vocal performances and food preferences, the animal is considered a pest in many African countries. A very tasty pest. There is no confirmed evidence that hammerheads carry corona or Ebola, the population of the species is not in danger, so the locals eat night hammer bats instead of KFC wings.