Living Art / 26 November, 2013
The Colony
Straw-coloured fruit bats | The biggest migration on earth
One of the greatest animal migrations anywhere on the planet arrives during November and December in a lush, marshy remote corner of Northern Zambia. Each year five million straw-coloured fruit bats, Eidolon helvum, take up residence in one hectare of Kasanka National Park’s mushitu swamp forest. The bats come to feed for a short six week period enticed by the abundance of seasonal fruits which include musuku, mufinsa and the other wild species in the area. In the fading twilight at dawn and dusk, the noisy chatter and activity from the colony increases thus filling the sky in all directions for twenty precious minutes as they leave and arrive at their roost site.
First Prize Winner. Mammals category. GDT 2014 - European Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Kasanka National Park
12°34'59" S | 30°12'00" E
Central Province, Zambia