Great Stripe-Faced Bat (Vampyrodes caraccioli)
Number 0184
I chose this bat completely at random from among all the mammals with species accounts in Mammalian Species. It’s a leaf-nosed Central and South American bat, and it’s frugivorous, another wonderful adjective from the world of biology: it eats fruit. The great stripe-faced bat enjoys a veritable tropical fruit salad, dining on papayas, figs, and bananas that it forages for in the forest canopy. In fact, this bat, along with other frugivorous bat species, is a very important spreader of fruit-tree seeds.
Consecutive days of mammals: 4
Record: 16
Record: 16
If you don’t mind my saying so, I’m pleased with the soft texture on this drawing. The reason is that it evokes a particular moment and illustrative style for me. Once in church, I was sitting with my mom and my sister during the service (my dad was in the choir) and I was reading (because my mom was so cool and let me) one of the Dorrie the Little Witch books by Patricia Coombs. It was one of my favorite series when I was little. Well, there was an elderly lady sitting next to me, and she bent over my book and touched one of the illustrations with her finger. “It’s so soft,” she said, meaning the illustration. That was the first time I’d heard someone describe art in terms other than “nice” or “good,” etc. It was very eye opening.
Anyway, the fur of this bat reminds me of that soft Patricia Coombs drawing. Here’s someone’s website about Dorrie, and here’s a picture, via Flickr, of a page from one of the Dorrie books that shows that soft illustration style.
He does have a very nice texture. Your mom sounds very cool@!! I was allowed to read the hymnal.