Many animals have unique ways they have evolved to adapt to their environment. For a flying fox, which is technically a kind of bat, that means using water mid-flight to cool off.
Take a look:
Photographer Nicolas Rakotopare, who has worked for multiple popular adventure brands such as National Geographic, captured this footage.
The video shows the flying fox swooping in and lightly touching the water. The animal then licks some of the water that is dripping off its body. It’s just enough to cool the animal off.
The video is captioned, “filming belly dipping behavior at 200 fps.” “FPS” stands for “frames per second.” Basically, it means this was a very fast maneuver by the animal.
“I filmed this a while ago, and it was honestly a challenge to stay sane in the extreme heat while trying to keep them in frame, tracking with manual focus as they dipped and darted over the water for several hours,” wrote Rakotopare in his post.
Rakotopare didn’t share the exact location of the video, but he did mention the heat. That’s where you’ll find a flying fox. The animal lives in tropical and subtropical regions of Australia, Asia and Africa.
Details About a Flying Fox
As we mentioned, a flying fox is a type of bat. They eat things like sweet potatoes, bananas and melons instead of mosquitoes. Also, unlike bats that live in the United States, flying foxes don’t use echolocation. Instead, they rely on their sense of smell and their eyesight.
They’re also a lot bigger than what comes to mind with most bats. Their wingspan can easily be five feet wide. They can weigh close to three pounds.
Their large size makes the video of this flying fox’s incredible belly dip that much more astonishing.