The find of a lifetime: Bizarre 'panda bat' discovered in South Sudan

[DainBramaged]

Researchers have hailed a bat that looks uncannily like a panda bear as 'the find of a lifetime'.
The bat, discovered in South Sudan, is so rare researchers believe it is an entirely new genus.
'My attention was immediately drawn to the bat's strikingly beautiful and distinct pattern of spots and stripes,' said Bucknell Associate Professor of Biology DeeAnn Reeder, who made the discovery.

'It was clearly a very extraordinary animal, one that I had never seen before - I knew the second I saw it that it was the find of a lifetime.'




Reeder spotted the animal in Bangangai Game Reserve.

After returning to the United States, Reeder determined the bat was the same as one originally captured in nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1939 and named Glauconycteris superba, but she and colleagues did not believe that it fit with other bats in the genus Glauconycteris


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2306798/The-lifetime-Bizarre-striped-Panda-bat-South-Sudan.html

[xchrom]

1. so cute....look at those ears! nt

[GiveMeFreedom]

2. Those aren't ears. They are radar dishes. n/t

[thereismore]

5. Sonar dishes, a.k.a. ears. nt

[Shankapotomus]

3. Wow...

Why would a bat develop multiple colors?

[SunSeeker]

4. Same question I ask about men's beards. nt

[Voice for Peace]

9. camouflage among the skunks and tuxedocats

[Shankapotomus]

10. Or...

maybe he has a bat wedding to go to?

[valerief]

6. Gorgeous! nt

[shenmue]

7. Awww, would you look at that!

Squeee!

[Voice for Peace]

8. he looks like my cat

so cute

[juajen]

11. The animals, insects, in other words, flora and fauna on this planet

are remarkable. Did ya'll see those adorable mollusks with beautiful blue eyes and orange and white stripes, some type of hermit crab, I believe. The photo was on yahoo news a couple of days ago. So adorable. I hope Pixar puts them in the "Finding Dora" movie that will be filmed with Ellen Degeneras in 2014. These have not been seen since 1937 or something like that. Honest, they looked just like a cartoon. I think they thought that they were extinct. I know something wonderful happened somehow to create the wonders on this planet, and, honestly, I will name it God.

[IrishAyes]

14. Not to digress, though I do...

But I think a lot of people miss out on the pleasure of God because they try to impose human limitations. I like how you think. Nothing in science contradicts a reasonable human concept of God, after all. Nature is the great cathedral.

[emmadoggy]

12. Kyoot!! nt

[IrishAyes]

13. I don't care WHO discovered it first

It's beautiful. Always before, I thought bat faces resembled chihuahuas, which I also like. But they're mud hens next to the panda bat.

That's one of the few things I really loved where I retired - the county and state offices are located in a beautiful old building on the public square, and the belfry houses a huge population of bats which fan out all over town every evening. So we have fewer bad bugs than we would otherwise. Nobody else seems to love them, but I do. The bats, that is, not the bugs.

Thank you for this wonderful post.