Think of them as pocket-sized dragons!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Bats are relatively small predators, so a majority of their meals are insects caught by grazing. However, the fringe-lipped bat stunned researchers with its lion-like hunting abilities.
Leonie Baier and team at Aarhus University tracked the bats’ hunts.
Fringe-lipped bats use a specialized hunting strategy to catch prey as big as themselves. They hunted large frogs despite their tiny size and limited energy.
How? The bats combined intense eavesdropping with a hang-and-wait method. This cut hunting time to an impressive EIGHT SECONDS!
These hunters swoop in so fast, prey doesn’t even have time to BAT an eye.
Reference: Baier, A. L., Mortensen, S. A., Cohen, G., Page, R. A., Madsen, P. T., & Stidsholt, L. (2025). Extreme hunting efficiency in a carnivorous bat. Current Biology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.10.023