Biggest Bat
The Biggest Bat In The World
The answer to which is the biggest bat in the world will depend upon whether one is referring to a baseball bat, softball bat, cricket bat, or the mammal we call the bat. The biggest bat of any kind is found, as might be expected, in Louisville, Kentucky, home of the renowned Louisville Slugger, the bat of choice of professional baseball. The Louisville bat is 120 feet high, weighs 15 tons, and rests against a 34 ton limestone baseball glove.
The Flying Fox - On the other hand, if it's the flying bat that's of interest, one called the flying fox is the answer you're looking for. The real name of the Flying Fox, so called not just for its size, but because its face looks more like a fox than that of a bat, is the giant Golden crowned fruit bat. Both names fit as the head of the bat is covered with golden hued hair. Native to the Philippines, it is the heaviest of all members of the bat kingdom. Although it only weighs in the neighborhood of 3 pounds, admittedly quite a bit for a bat where the weight is usually measured in ounces, the Golden-crowned fruit bat is nevertheless a fearsome sight should one be headed in your general direction, as it has a wingspan of nearly 5 feet, the stuff horror movies are made of. There's no need to fear though, if the bat is truly hungry it would be looking for its favorite food, a fig.
The Giant Flying Fox - If it's wingspan you go by, the largest bat would be Pteropus Vampyrus, whose name suggests definite vampire tendencies. It is however, not a blood sucker, but like the Golden-crowned fruit bat, eats fruit as the mainstay of its diet. This species goes by the name Giant Flying Fox. Like its cousin, its head is fox-like in appearance. Its wingspan is slightly longer though, approaching closer to 6 feet. A rather attractive bat, both in repose and in flight, if is unfortunately considered good eating by the inhabitants of Malaysia and other parts of southeast Asia where it lives, and its numbers have declined to the point is has become a "near-threatened", if not yet an endangered, species.
Biggest Bat Colonies - As impressive as the biggest bat is, the world's biggest bat colony is even more so. The Bracken Cave in Texas is home to around 40 million of the creatures. These are not three pound bats with a 5 or 6 foot wingspan, but forty million of any mammal is something big, no matter how you look at it. Even a few thousand or few hundred thousand bats are quite a sight, and a number of colonies of this size can be found under bridges and other structures in Texas. There are caves elsewhere in the United States containing large colonies of bats, including one in the Texas Hill Country which is holds the second biggest bat population in the world, home to just over 10 million Mexican free-tailed bats. Bat caves with large populations are also found in California, West Virginia, and several other states.
The Biggest Are In The Movies - The movies would have us believe that a vampire bat (they do exist) would be the biggest bat, but the vampire bat is somewhat average in size when compared to most fruit bats. The biggest bat in the movies? You either saw it in the recent version of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with Gary Oldman hanging from the ceiling, or Bela Lugosi's portrayal (a bat alighting in a doorway) in Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein. Bats can be as large as you wish to imagine them to be.