Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years.

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week and a very happy Thanksgiving! I thought that since it was Thanksgiving, I should write about what I am thankful for. I’m sure you’ve already guessed it…I am thankful for bats!

One bat that I think is really interesting is the Livingstone’s fruit bat. The Livingstone’s fruit bat is a mega-bat that lives on the Indian Ocean islands of Anjouan and Moheli in the Union of the Comoros. The Union of the Comoros is an archipelago island nation off the coast of Africa northwest of Madagascar.

The Livingstone’s fruit bat is one of the largest bats in the world. It is about 30 cm (11.8 inches) long and has an average wingspan of 1.4 m (4.6 ft). It has dark brown or black fur and ginger colored hairs on its shoulders. It also has beautiful orange-brown eyes. One of the most interesting things about this bat is that it doesn’t use echolocation. Because of this, it has cute little round ears. Their diet is mainly fruit juice. They squeeze pieces of fruit in their mouths, swallow the juice and then spit out the fruit and seeds.

The Livingstone’s fruit bat is endangered. The main threat is deforestation.

You can learn more about this amazing bat here.