Bat as food
Bats as food are eaten by people in some areas of North America,[1] Asia, Africa, Pacific Rim countries,[2] and some other cultures, including the United States, China,[3] Vietnam, the Seychelles, the Philippines,[4][5][6] Indonesia,[7] Palau, Thailand,[8] and Guam.Chronostratigraphic analysis of archaeological sites indicate that bats could have been exploited as a food source since 74,000 years ago by Homo floresiensis.[20][18] After World War II the bats of Costozza's caves were almost extinct "for the ruthless hunting that the natives make of them, at the time of the grape, in order to assimilate them with the most tasty little birds.In the Geographica of Strabo it is described the city of Borsippa (now Birs Nimrud in Iraq), where there was a large number of bats captured by the inhabitants, who "salad them to eat them".[18] In the sixteenth century Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi refers in his treatise Ornitologia that bats have a white meat, edible, and excellent flavor.[7] Consumption is particularly intense in North Sulawesi, where locals eat flying fox meat at least once a month, with a tenfold increase in frequency near Christian holidays.[27][28][29] According to a research conducted by Guansheng Ma, director of Nutrition and Gastronomy at the University of Beijing, "...eating bat meat is more than rare in China.[33][34][35] Some media outlets, including Daily Mail and RT, promoted a video that showed a young Chinese woman eating a bat and suggested it was shot in Wuhan, but later it was confirmed that the footage was filmed by travel vlogger Wang Mengyun in the island country of Palau in 2016, to showcase local cuisine.[3] All wildlife trade in China, including bat meat, was banned in January 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic which originated in Wuhan.Locals catch and kill several dozen megabats per hunting trip; the bats are then skinned, beheaded, and de-winged before they are gutted, chopped, and stewed.[46] Estufa de morcego is a bat stew delicacy in the cuisine of São Tomé and Príncipe that is served on saints days and during fiestas.Bats are susceptible to overhunting as they have naturally low rates of reproduction and many species are highly colonial, which makes it easier for them to be hunted in large numbers.Paul Alan Cox from the Hawaiian National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kalaheo, and Oliver Sacks from Albert Einstein College in New York, found the bats consumed large quantities of cycad seeds and appear to accumulate the toxins to dangerous levels in their meat.
fruit batMinahasanManadoNorth SulawesiIndonesiaVietnamSeychellesPhilippinesThailandmegabatMariana fruit batsdelicacyAsia-PacificChronostratigraphicHomo floresiensisAboriginal Australiansblack flying foxlittle red flying foxTop EndTaínomiddenNew Worldprovince of Vicenzahorseshoe batsWorld War IILeviticusGeographicaStraboBorsippaUlisse AldrovandiMesoamericastraw-coloured fruit batFranquet's epauletted fruit batGambian epauletted fruit bathammer-headed batEgyptian fruit batAngolan rousettePeters's dwarf epauletted fruit batlarge slit-faced batroundleaf batsSingaporeMayantocTarlacPhu Kheio Wildlife Sanctuarythe NortheastAndaman and Nicobar Islandscave nectar batPomona roundleaf batIndian flying foxLeschenault's rousettegreater short-nosed fruit batHuanan Seafood Wholesale MarketCOVID-19Daily Mailvloggercoronavirus pandemicOceaniaNambiquaraleaf-nosed batepilepsySeba's short-tailed batsmouse-eared batscommon vampire batsBat adoboPhilippine adobocurriescoconut milkHot potFruit batscuisine of São Tomé and PríncipefiestasThe Oxford Companion to Foodgrilledbarbecueddeep friedstir frysmicronutrientsMadagascaranemiaoverhuntingcolonialsmall Mauritian flying foxGuam flying foxBat viromenatural reservoirEbolavirus2013–2016 epidemicsevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)lytico-bodig diseasePaul Alan CoxHawaiian National Tropical Botanical GardenKalaheoOliver SacksAlbert Einstein CollegeNew YorkHuman uses of batsNBC NewsEsquire MagazineBibcodeNational GeographicPoultryCassowaryChickenOstrichPigeonTurkeyLivestockAlpacaBeefaloBuffaloDonkeySnailsGuinea pigLamb and muttonŻubrońAlligatorBushmeatCrocodileElephantIguanaKangarooMonkeyPangolinTurtleVenisonAnchovy