Hammer-headed bats mate through what is known as a 'lek system'. Habitat:These sharks commonly reside on continental shelves, and in bays and other inshore waters. Dr. Helmenstine holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and is a science writer, educator, and consultant. [6], A 2011 study found that Hypsignathus was the most basal member of the tribe Epomophorini, which also includes Epomops, Micropteropus, Epomophorus, and Nanonycteris. Whether or not the bats can transmit Ebola infection to humans is unknown. The hammerhead bat is a mammal and its habitat is in equatorial Africa. In Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is consumed as bushmeat. Due to their frugivorous diet Hammer-headed bats are important seeds dispersers in their ecosystem and they also serve as a food source for some birds of prey. However it is interesting that I would have seen the creature in mental images, presumably before I had known about the Jersey Devil, especially considering how surprised I was to come across this picture of the Jersey Devil, and that my Big Bat and the Jersey Devil would look identical to each other. As Benjamin Radford of Live Science tells us, tales of this legendary cryptid have been reported since the 18th century, and its origin story is the stuff of horror movies: supposedly, on the requisite dark and stormy night, a lady (and possible witch) known as Mother Leeds was giving birth to her thirteenth child. The early evening peak is when the majority of copulation occurs. If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via story . Some individuals have tested seropositive for the virus, meaning that they had antibodies against the virus, though the virus itself was not detected. As one of the largest bats in the world, one would think that it would be a threat to humankind, especially since it cuts such an imposing figure. To learn more about shark tagging and how sharks use New Jersey's coastal wetlands and back bays, TNC worked on a video with Keith Dunton, Associate Professor of Biology at Monmouth University. Per Se/FlickrMale hammer-headed bats can have a wingspan of greater than three feet. The Jersey Devil is a creature native to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Here's why! Leeds eventually converted to the Anglican Church, and the Quakers reacted to this affront by labeling him evil and releasing an official anti-Leeds tract calledSatan's Harbinger Encountered. And, what is even more exciting and tingling, is that while browsing for pictures on the internet of the hammerhead bat, I came across yet another even more exciting picture, that of a Jersey Devil, which looks even more like the Big Bat I had encountered, in that the Jersey Devil has the hooved feet that my alien cryptid also had. The conservation status of the hammer-headed bat was last evaluated in 2016. Females may become pregnant up to twice per year, giving birth after five or six months gestation[10] to one offspring at a time,[12] though twins have been reported. [12] The wings attach to the hindlimbs at the second toe. The common description is that of a kangaroo-like or wyvern-like creature with a goat- or horse-like head, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, legs with cloven hooves, and a forked tail. 1 Top Replies 10 Created 8 yr Apex predators like great white and mako sharks lurk in the deep and will not hesitate to make a meal out of their smaller cousins. [12] Upon finding suitable fruit, the hammer-headed bat may eat at the tree or pick the fruit and carry it away to another site for consumption. | Allegedly, Leeds was also a big mysticism guy, and had published a text calledThe Temple of Wisdom,where he discussed things like sorcery and devils. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. They thrive in the moist, tropical forests surrounding Equatorial Africas lowlands, swamps, and rivers. Below is what I wrote in 2020 from having encountered pictures of the real hammerhead bat which is an animal that lives in Africa, and then coming across mention of the cryptid known as the Jersey Devil which has a striking resemblance to my Big Bat from 2013: Update: This creature is real! While roosting, individuals in a group are approximately 1015cm (3.95.9in) apart, with males on the periphery and females nearer the center. Of course, there's the minor issue that the hammerhead bat is native to Africa, not North America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer-headed_bat, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hammerhead-bat/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil. Hammer-headed Bat | Wild View - Wildlife Conservation Society It is classified as a megabat and is native to Africa.it might be possible that this bat was brought to NJ on a boat and escaped, primitive man may have seen him and the Jersey Devil sightings were sparked in 1909.. Like this guy! It is believed to be the only bat species with a classical lek mating system, wherein males gather on a "lek", which in this case is a long and thin stretch of land, such as along a river. From a quick search, they are about 8 to 12 inches long. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List. The bat is categorized as "least concern." According to Cape Bay Magazine, skeptic, author andSkeptoidproducer Brian Dunning certainly believes this: "In most cases like this, some of the sightings turn out to be mistaken identifications of everyday animals or something else," he has said. [12] Typically, 60120 honks are produced per minute. And, because they keep the food chain balanced, sharks also indirectly sustain marine environments like seagrass beds and reefs. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Content copyright 2016 Planet Weird unless otherwise noted. . While there are many stories detailing the origin of the Jersey Devil, sightings have been reported beginning in the 1700s and continuing on until the past decade. Females reach sexual maturity at 6 months of age. In contrast, males are not sexually mature until eighteen months. Hammerhead Shark - Island Beach State Park, NJ - YouTube Males and females both have dark brown fur, with a paler mantle (sides and back of neck). Females appear more like a typical megabat, with foxlike faces. Females reach adult size by nine months of age. Each male claims a territory of about 30 feet, then hangs from a branch and flaps his wings while repeatedly honking as many as 60 to 120 times per minute. Even bats native to areas that experience cold winters - like New . Smooth dogfish nurseries have been documented in New Jersey's estuaries and shallow tidal waters, particularly Great Bay and Little Egg Harbor. [12], The hammer-headed bat is a lowland species, always occurring below 1,800m (5,900ft) above sea level. It's easy! Unless you count the stars of the billion or so reality shows set in New Jersey, the Garden State's strangest and most famous creature is the Jersey Devil. The Jersey Devil Hammerhead Bat Theory - Week In Weird There's virtually no way possible that a frugivorous bat from Africa survived in Jersey for long, and certainly not the period of time over which there were sightings. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? These differences include several adaptations that help males produce and amplify vocalizations: the males' larynges (vocal cords) are about three times as large as those of females, and they have large resonating chambers on their faces. [21] It has a diverse array of parasites, including such ectoparasites as the bat fly (Nycteribiidae) Dipseliopoda arcuata, the spinturnicid mite Ancystropus aethiopicus, the gastronyssid mite Mycteronyssus polli, and the teinocoptid mite Teinocopties auricularis. [7] Some taxonomists do not recognize Epomophorinae as a valid subfamily and include its taxa, including the Epomophorini, within Rousettinae. Hammerhead bats are native to Central Africa, and . Megabat widely distributed in West and Central Africa, "Evolutionary relationships of the old world fruit bats (Chiroptera, Pteropodidae): Another star phylogeny? I had at first not listed the big bat as an alien species, I had meant to list it, but the second sighting was helpful. Indeed, websites and social media describe the hammer-headed bat's appearance as "the spitting image of a devil" and even claim that it's a cryptid known as the "Jersey Devil." [10] The thumb is approximately 128137mm (5.05.4in) long. It is the largest bat in continental Africa, with wingspans approaching 1m (3.3ft), and males almost twice as heavy as females. They can fly. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. The NIH reported: Molecular testing implicated this species and other African bats as potential reservoir hosts for Ebola virus, and it was one of only two fruit bat species epidemiologically linked to the 2008 Luebo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ebola outbreak.. Females may become pregnant up to twice per year, giving birth to one offspring at a time, though twins have been reported. | To this day, additional studies are being conducted by scientists to determine the true nature of Ebola transmission, according to Science, but as of 2022, there are no definitive studies that link the bat to Ebola transmission. The wings are blackish brown in color. [10] It has a wide range in West and Central Africa, including the following countries: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. I think it looks rather cute myself. In some populations, breeding is thought to take place semi-annually during the dry seasons. As Dan Evon of Snopes reports, though, there's another possible culprit for Jersey Devil sightings. Hammer-headed bats are polygynous meaning that males mate with more than one female. Of course, there's the minor issue that the hammerhead bat is native to Africa, not North America. It meets the criteria for this classification because it has a wide geographic range; its population is presumably large; and it is not thought to be experiencing rapid population decline. The ears are triangular and blackish-brown, and the eyes are very large. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. The Hammer-headed bat is the largest bat in mainland Africa. While roosting, individuals in a group are approximately 10-15 cm (3.9-5.9 in) apart, with males on the periphery and females nearer the center. Description: Large sharks withrobust, muscular bodies of light brown or gray color. Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. 2015. The larynx is so large, it displaces other organs, including the heart, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract. The Jersey Devil Hammer-headed bat - Wikipedia Males gather in a particular region, known as a lek and there they establish "display territories". [18] Males display for around four hours before foraging, with peaks in lekking activity in the early evening and before dawn. Viral long-haired Yankees bat boy gets big break for band [19] The classical lek is defined by four criteria:[10], Males form these leks along streams or riverbeds during the mating season, which lasts 13 months. An alternative term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of e Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. The hammer-headed bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus), also known as hammer-headed fruit bat and big-lipped bat, is a megabat widely distributed in West and Central Africa. Powered by Invision Community, Unexplained-Mysteries.com uses cookies. Being active at night helps keep the animals from overheating. In the forest canopy, they also rely on camouflage to hide them from predators. Digital editing has been responsible for the creation of images of some fantastically fictional looking creatures, such as seven-headed snakes, pink-horned rhinos, and impossibly small kittens. Researchers fitted this hammer-headed bat with a GPS tracker. Males and females rely on different strategies for foraging. Don't criticize what you do not understand. It's a flying moose, or a bat", "Hunting for Ebola among the bats of the Congo", Audio recording of a few males honking in the early evening at their lek, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hammer-headed_bat&oldid=1136306370, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2015, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Males gather in a particular region, known as a lek; here, they establish "display territories", Display territories offer no beneficial resources to females beyond access to males, Males do not assist females in caring for offspring, This page was last edited on 29 January 2023, at 18:42. The Orion Project - Big Bat Additionally, nucleic acid sequences associated with the virus have been isolated from its tissues. In 1718, Leeds retired and his son, the amazingly named Titan Leeds, took over both the family affairs and their penchant for feuding. These leks are usually formed along streams or riverbeds and consist of 20-135 males. Bats have such incredibly bizarre faces, they are fascinating to me. It has two mating seasons each year during the dry seasons. In July 2018, many social media users wondered if they were witnessing a similar creation in an image of an odd-looking, large animal said to be a "hammerhead bat": We have not been able to pinpoint the exact origins of this photograph, but we can say that the hammerhead bat (also known as the "hammer-headed bat") is a genuine animal that looks like the one pictured here. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels. The hammer-headed bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus), widely distributed in equatorial Africa, is one of three species of African fruit bat thought to be asymptomatically infected with the Ebola. After all, who could believe that Pine Barrens is actually haunted by a long-legged, cloven-hooved, bat-winged monster with a long, goat-like face and a body like a kangaroo? [10] During most of the day, individuals sleep with their noses covered by their wings. While figs are their favored food, they also eat bananas, mangoes, and guavas. Is the Hammerhead Bat a Real Animal? | Snopes.com But despite its larger-than-life presence, the bat is nothing more than a fruit lover, subsisting solely on wild fruits indigenous to western and central Africa and serving no threat to humans or other animals. Giant horse-headed bats, five-legged frogs and geese with - The Sun There are some complications inherent in a fruit diet such as insufficient protein intake. They pick and eat fruit at night. Males range in weight from 8.0 to 15.9oz, while females weigh 7.7 to 13.3oz. Habitat: Sandbar sharks prefer bays, harbors and even the mouths of rivers where, true to their name, they frequent shallow waters over sandbars. "WHAT-IS-IT VISITS ALL SOUTH JERSEY" declared the front page of The Inquirer on Jan. 21, 1909 - above a photograph of "actual proof-prints of the strange creature." "Hooflike tracks" could be seen in the snow "in practically every block in Burlington city" - including rooftops - throwing . Unfortunately, bull sharks are often pulled up by fishermen as bycatch, which is one of the reasons that scientists predict that populations are decreasing, but more information is needed, which is why The Nature Conservancy has included the bull shark as part of a larger marine life tagging and tracking program in the Gulf of Mexico. Sign up for a new account in our community. During the mating season male Hammer-headed bats have to try hard in order to attract females; they typically display for around 4 hours and produce 60-120 honks per minute. It is the only member of the genus Hypsignathus, which is part of the tribe Epomophorini along with four other genera. The picture on the right is from the Wikipedia article. Nevertheless, you shouldn't get too close, because it's one of three species of African fruit bat believed to carry the Ebola virus. The time required for gestation and weaning is unclear, but females are known to mature more quickly than males. Their larynx and rostrum are enlarged, creating a resonating chamber that makes it easier for them to create the loud honking noises that attract the females. [2] Initially, Allen identified the hammer-headed bat as a member of the subfamily Pteropodinae of the megabats. Shutterstock. Diamondback terrapins live in brackish. There are some theories the Devil might be a non-native animal that someone brought over, like a Hammerhead Bat. [10], Its predators are not well-documented, but may include avian species such as the long-tailed hawk. The Jersey Devil Might Actually Have Existed. [10] In the before-dawn peak in activity, copulation is less frequent, and males spend time jockeying with each other for the best display territory. Thankfully, these extraordinary bats are not considered to be a threatened species, though increasing deforestation and climate change are beginning to impact their natural habitats. Like many other mammals, baby bats are known as pups. The bat has a life expectancy of thirty years in the wild. But just going on looks I can see how if people saw this bat they could confuse it with some of the depictions of JD. Groups are of mixed sex and age, unlike other bat species which segregate based on sex. Erika Nortemann / The Nature Conservancy, Cape May Wetlands:

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