Thursday Feb 28 2008

St. Mary's Convent Mhow, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

Fruit Eating Bats (The Indian Flying Fox)    Taxonomic name: Pteropus giganteus

I visited my ex-school St. Mary's Convent (Mhow) today. When I asked the Principal Sister Lalita whether I could 'shoot' the bats in the campus she promptly allowed me to do so. I remember seeing bats here when I was a student for two sessions 1968-69 and 69-70. Sister Lalita tells me that some years ago the bats had vanished for a month or so. Everybody noticed it because this is one of the few (perhaps the only) spots where one can see bats in Mhow. Luckily they came back. St Mary's is a very old school. If I remember rightly it celebrated its centenary in 1993. The campus is a mini sanctuary of sorts with a wealth of birds of different kinds. I intend to come here for more nature shoots. And I will be sharing the results with fellow bloggers. Keep watching this space... 

I must add that I am a bit wary of bats. This is especially so after reading of some cave explorers who were unlucky enough to get infected with rabies due to airborne transmission of the rabies germs in the rancid air of a cave.  If you scroll down you can also see a brief video I shot and uploaded onto Youtube. 

According to the Wikipedia: It is a very large bat with a wing span of around 80 centimeters. It is nocturnal and feeds mainly on ripe fruits such as mangos and bananas and nectar. This bat is gregarious and lives in colonies which can number a few hundred. Their offspring has no specific name besides 'young'. They reproduce sexually and give live birth. They have one to two young.