087_LZmN_52V Bat Migration
Image information
Title: | LZmN_52V - Straw-coloured Fruit Bat Migration, Kasanka NP, N Zambia |
Caption: | The scene in December in one of the 'mushitu' (relic rain forests) in the Kasanka NP. The Straw-coloured Fruit Bat (Eidolon helvum) has a wingspan of 75cm to 95cm, making it the second largest African bat species. And it is responsible for the largest animal migration on the planet. Every year between October and December millions migrate from the Congo for up to 1000km to feed on the wild fruits of the rich Miombo Woodland of Northern Zambia, in particular to the Kasanka NP. Here they roost in the mushitu habitats (areas of relic rain forest) by day and then fly out each dusk to feed. Their number is so large and so concentrated that their weight regularly breaks the branches of the large roosting trees, sending thousands of squeeking bats into a swirling day-flight, before each finds another hotly-contested roosting spot and settles. They are so numerous that, every evening, shortly after sunset, their mass flight darkens the sky. Scientific studies have put the number of the bats visiting Kasanka variously at between 1 and 5 million. But since then, perhaps predictably, the tourism industry has multiplied that to "10 million"! Either way, it is an awful lot of bats; and they provide us with what is one of Africa's still largely unknown 'nature spectaculars'. |
Edition: | Signed Limited Edition of: 50 |
Print: | Panoramic fine art print on various media & in various sizes - see Price List for options. |
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