More than a hundred bat species have been found packed into about five acres (two hectares) of Ecuadorian rain forest. While the species found are not new, the diverse mélangein Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the eastern part of the countrymarks the highest number of bat species ever recorded in one place, researchers report.

Tropical rain forests such as Tiputini offer bats a plentiful menu.

Some of the flyinmammalsmunch on frogs, insects, fruit, and nectar. Others have a taste for fish. And for vampire bats, only a blood meal will satisfy.

Katja Rex, of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany, and colleagues spent several months capturing bats and identifying species in three tropical rain forest locations: La Selva Biological Station, a lowland rain forest in Costa Rica; Podocarpus National Park, a highland rain forest in southern Ecuador; and Tiputini.

 

Source: right here

-- Edited by Dj_Rubbut at 12:38, 2008-08-05

-- Edited by Dj_Rubbut at 14:13, 2008-08-09