Wildlife Photos: The Ryukyu Flying Fox

Here are a few photos of these critters in-flight.

Also known as a Fruit Bat (Pteropus dasymallus) they can be seen all over Okinawa.

They are some fast-flying bats that you don't usually catch on a bright, sunny day.

We were up in the mountains of Motobu waiting for the sun to set.

Not expecting to shoot any wildlife, I left my Sigma 50-500mm lens behind.

The mission we were on was to shoot some wide angle photos, just to prove a point.

THE POINT: From a certain-ear-pooping-elevation in the hills of Motobu Okinawa,

YOU CAN SEE THE POWER PLANT OF KIN VILLAGE !

 Along comes these bats, putting on a show for me so, I shot them using an 18-250mm lens.

Don't worry.  We got photos of the Kin Power plant and fireworks from Kin Matsuri.

We have photographic evidence that you can view all the way from Motobu to Kin Village.

That's something you will have to wait to see.

Wildlife photography happens to be more important to me.

Plus, I forgot to ask a local, to teach me, what the name of that mountain might be !

Check out the Animal Diversity Web to learn more about the Ryukyu Flying Fox

It's a cool website run by the University of Michigan.

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MORE WILDLIFE PHOTOS

Wildlife Photo (Bat) Ryukyu Flying Fox an Endangered Species

Today's wildlife photo is presented to you by Rusty Robertson. He shot this one yesterday in the Cherryblossoms up on Nago Mountain while I was staying warm and dry and still recuperating from hiking up that monster last weekend.

The Ryukyu Flying Fox (Pteropus dasymallus) also known as a Fruit Bat, is an Endangered Species. These bats grow to the point where their wingspan is about a meter wide and make some fairly loud noise flapping them.  So, most people who don't know about them get pretty shook up when they see one flying around as the sun starts to set.

From watching too many vampire movies, they get the idea these humongous bats are going to swoop down, pick them up, fly away to a tree in the dark and suck all the blood out of their neck.

For an endangered species, it's the one I see the most of in Okinawa, Japan.  In fact, I see them everyday. They are out, flying just before sunset and I see them early in the morning, before the sun gets everything lit up. After sunrise, they settle down to sleep, somewhere in the trees.

There's really no reason to be afraid of these bats. They don't eat people and they don't want your blood. They are Fruit Bats. They eat fruits, flowers, leaves and maybe, an occassional bug.

Rusty now, he's being featured here as a photographer because I'm really impressed with his work. He has only had his first DSLR camera about a month and he's already starting to shoot like a Professional wildlife photographer.  I'll be keepin' an eye on him; he's my apprentice, he drives a really cool getaway car and has him a GIRL WITH MUSCULAR ARMS.

They went to see the Cherryblossoms yesterday and discovered the flowers were blooming better yesterday than they did during the annual Nago Cherryblossom Festival.  Plus, caught this Ryukyu Flying Fox munching away on the flowers.

So, now that everybody knows this endangered species doesn't go around biting people, I thought the photo would be great for my weekly Travel Photo Thursday shot at BUDGET TRAVELERS SANDBOX.