#hammer-headed bat

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

There's nothing monstrous about Hypsignathus monstrosus! Male hammer-headed bats are famous for their unusual faces, but to females there's nothing more attractive. Twice a year, males will gather in groups of up to 150; together they'll hang from a tree, flap their wings, and honk loudly to attract females. This gathering is known as a lek, and hammer-headed bats are the only known species of bats to perform for their mates in this manner.

(Image: A male hammer-headed bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus) by Sarah H. Olsen)

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

May i request Hammerhead Bats? They honk 🤡

Have you seen the hammer-headed bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onAug 1, 2025

The first photo is of a female, the second is of a male. This is the most sexually dimorphic bat species in the world.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

weirdest extant mammal?

Human (we are so weird, don't deny it)

Platypus (tf is with the venom knees on top of everything else)

Narwhal (why put a tooth that far out of your face)

Koala (usually asleep, relies on one plant, eat its mom's poop to digest it)

Babirusa (put those horns back where they came from or so help me)

Colugo (gliding... lemur cousins???)

Hammer-Headed Bat (wtf is that face)

Naked Mole Rat (a eusocial mammal??? what?)

Saiga Antelope (what is with that nose)

Sloth (I couldn't pick one, that's how weird they are)

Voting ended onJul 16, 2023

yes, I know, not on blog theme, but we're a bunch of dino lovers so I wanted to see what we thought was weird in mammals

[flittermousing]

I like bats a normal amount

[weird-little-guy-of-the-week]

No. 13 Hammer-Headed Bat Hypsignathus monstrosus

Found in lowland forests across West and Central Africa.

They are the largest species of bat in Africa.

Only the males have their distinctive, boxy head profile. Their sinuses act as a resonating chamber for their calls during the breeding season, where they gather in leks and 'honk' loudly to impress the females. Here's a link to a recording on Xeno-Canto by Frank Willems of these calls in Zambia.

[antiqueanimals]

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, vol. 11, Mammals II. 1972.

1.) Grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)

2.) Large flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus)

3.) Greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx)

4.) Island tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene major)

5.) Straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum)

6.) Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus)

7.) Hammer-headed bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus)

8.) Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi)

9.) Zenker's fruit bat (Scotonycteris zenkeri)

10.) Peters's dwarf epauletted fruit bat (Micropteropus pusillus)

11.) Woermann's bat (Megaloglossus woermanni)

12.) Franquet's epauletted fruit bat (Epomops franqueti)

[platypu]

I love reading zoology research articles so much - yeah often there will be a ridiculous amount of academic language and scientists should be pushing to make knowledge more widely accessible but there's something about it all that is just unintentionally comedic. Like the formality of it all and the funding required and the number of scientists being like yeah this is my life's work and it is incredibly significant and then they'll show you the animal and it's just-

[cheemscakecat]

Slight missed opportunity in Gravity Falls

Dipper nO DON’T TAZE THE BOY :(

So it turns out that the giant bats in Gravity Falls are giant fruit bats. But they look like the little microbats that eat bugs or drink blood.

I think this was a missed opportunity to use the hammer-headed bat or the tube nosed bat, both of which are fruit eating bats.

Hammer-headed Fruit bat [Africa]

They look quite dubious. Ford would definitely think he’s going to get turned into a vampire if one of these bit him.

Tube-Nosed/ Shrek bat [Australia]

These boys have cursed, human looking teeth and would probably have looked good behind the campfire in the opening. They are smaller than the other Australian Megabats.