Greater noctule bat captures a songbird in midair

Researchers have recorded Europe’s largest bat, the greater noctule, climbing to high altitude, intercepting a migrating songbird and killing, dismembering and consuming it while remaining in flight, according to a study published in Science. The observations were made in and around Doñana National Park in southern Spain after scientists fitted wild bats with small biologging packs that recorded three dimensional movement, altitude, acceleration and audio.

The team fitted 14 greater noctules with tags containing accelerometers, magnetometers, altimeters and microphones to track nocturnal hunting behavior that previously had been inferred only from feathers and DNA in bat droppings. The tags recorded two episodes in which bats ascended above the height typical of migrating passerines, climbing as high as about 1,200 meters, and then plunged toward individual birds. In one case the pursuit ended in capture. Audio and motion data indicated a chase lasting nearly three minutes, 21 distress calls emitted by the targeted bird later identified as a European robin, an apparent pause consistent with a lethal bite, and 23 minutes of chewing sounds recorded between echolocation calls as...