These bats love hugs

OThe biggest and most formidable hunters in the bat world also seem to be one of the hugs. Spectral bats – whose scientific name deserves a horror film: Vampyrum spectrum-Have wings up to three feet, and for dinner, they tend to swallow up birds, rodents and even some other species of mammals, including other bats. But at home with the family, they like to cuddle them, wrap the wings and members around each other, as well as to share food, and they invest massively in the education of children.

When Marisa Tietge, research assistant and doctoral student at the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Germany, tripped on a comfortable perch of four spectral bats in Costa Rica, she knew she had to look more closely. The species is quite shy and difficult to find, which makes these bats difficult to seek.

“I really had no expectations,” she said. “This is a blank sheet of paper – everything we record is new is new.”

Spectral bats are special for many reasons – their inclination to hunt their food, their monogamous mating style and the way they live in small families that include both male and female parents and their offspring. This is quite different from social behavior in most other bats, which often involves a man defending a territory with several female companions. (Only 16 of 84 bats of bats whose mating models have been studied form monogamous pairs.)

“These APEX predators have such soft and sweet behaviors, and they are so social.”

“I think that a typical image that people have on bats is like these large clusters of bats hanging together in a cave or in groups-like 50 bats or perhaps hundreds or thousands of bats,” says Tietge. “This is often the case, but in this species, this is not the case.”

Tietge repeated visits to the perch to get the bats to its smell and its presence. Finally, bats did not even disperse at all when she approached her lighthouse. The next step was to set up wildlife cameras in the hollow tree that the battle of bats called at home. His analyzes of video sequences have recently been published in Plosone.

What she discovered was a photo of domestic bliss – Videos has shown that bats were often preparing and have often greeted their family members with vocalizations and an action -shaped action, wrapping their wings around the other’s body, when they returned to the perch after hunting or exploration. At night while they were sleeping, the creatures formed what Tietge nicknamed a “cuddly ball”: a four -track hug which included the packaging of the wings and the touching walls. The two bats were different ages and stayed with their parents up to two years-a long childhood compared to other bat species.

Another fascinating behavior captured is the sharing of food. A parent often entered, carrying a small rat or bird to eat and essentially transfer this food to its offspring, helping to facilitate the transition of milk to meat. Spectral bats can be important in terms of bats, but the prey that they hunt is still large enough in comparison, so it is a learning process to hang on to food while keeping their wings open so that they can eat, explains Tietge. These meals can take 30 to 40 minutes.

It was not the only moment of cooperation related to food. When the parental was still a puppy, her partner would return to the perch with prey gifts to maintain the nutrition of the mother while she took care of the baby. In fact, on certain occasions, when bats brought back food to eat, other bats already knew the consumer targeted for this tasty treat, explains Tietge. Instead of testing the incoming bat for a bite of delicious prey, the creatures understood the context of this snack and if it was intended for them, a bit like a label on the yogurt in the office refrigerator or the name on a Ubereat command.

There are several reasons why spectral bats can have such strong and cooperative relationships with their families, which complicity attributes to their role in the ecosystem. While many bats are foragers, spectral bats are hunters who require a whole set of skills entirely different and often a longer learning process. The comfortable and cooperative relationship within the family gives time and support for puppies to learn the complex complex of skills they need to survive and succeed in their unique situation.

“I think it’s so cool and fascinating that these Apex predators have such soft and sweet behaviors, and they are so social,” adds Tietge. “I hope that these kinds of shows to people to which bats are not mysterious and dangerous creatures. There are many things we can understand, and there are even parallels with our own behavior. ”

Image of lead: Marisa Tietge, CC-by 4.0

• Sara Kiley Watson

  Published on September 10, 2025

  Sara Kiley Watson is a climate and scientific journalist currently based in the Netherlands.