When most people think of bats, they likely don't think of cuddly hugs.
However, researchers recently captured footage of a group of spectral bats hugging to say hello, The New York Times and CNN reported.
Spectral bats, also called greater false vampire bats, are large, carnivorous bats found in Mexico and Central America. They are fairly elusive, which is part of the reason that researchers were so interested to see them perform social behaviors.
According to the New York Times, they bring food to share with roostmates and play with bugs. They even give each other hugs with their three-foot wingspans.
Marisa Tietge, a Ph.D. student at Humboldt University, was the lead author on a recent paper published in PLOS One about the bats.
"There are only a few known roosts in the whole of Latin America, and then there's nothing really known about the species," she said to the NYT. "This is kind of a big discovery."
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The research team collected over 500 videos of the bat family (a male, a female, and two children) over three months. These videos captured behavior such as the greeting hug and a longer cuddling behavior. These behaviors have not been recorded in other bat species.
Trail cameras and other cameras set up to record wildlife can be powerful tools for research into animal behavior. They can also monitor population health and rehabilitation efforts.
Managing ecosystems responsibly allows for rich biodiversity, strengthening local communities and food supplies.
Conservation efforts for animals like the spectral bat are just one of many broader ecological safeguards that exist to protect our climate. As apex predators, spectral bats have an important role in their ecosystems' food chains. The loss of the spectral bat could throw these food chains out of balance.
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Never 👎 The spectral bat is described as "near threatened" on the IUCN Red List. But in Bolivia and Mexico, it's considered endangered, and Ecuador considers it vulnerable. Since these bats find habitats in trees for roosting, deforestation can pose a serious threat to their safety.
José Gabriel Martínez-Fonseca, a postdoctoral researcher in wildlife ecology at Northern Arizona University, said in the NYT's reporting that these findings "[have] opened our minds to the possibility that a lot of the species have really complex behaviors."
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