2025 - Fat bats and Fried Things
During fatbatweek 2024 I was looking into Japanese bat species and discovered, with delight, that one species is known as "油蝙蝠". This set the theme for this year. I was further inspired by a number of bat researchers (Shout out in particular to the Taiwanese Golden bat crew!) and rehabilitators for this years species selection. I am increasingly trying to pick bats from diverse locations, and cultural cuisines relating to their ranges. Please feel welcome to ping me on social media with requests for next years bats (and snax)!
The ten bat species and the snacks depicted here are:
Japanese Housebat and Kitsune udon
Taiwanese Golden Bat and You tiao
Eastern tube-nosed bat with Pineapple fritter
Greater Noctule with Ukrainian verguny
Spotted bat and Fried Chicken burger
Spurrell's woolly bat and Kelewele, or fried plantain
New Zealand Short-tailed with Paraoa parai (fried bread)
Spectrer Bat and Peruvian Picarones
Greater Bulldog bat with a Crumbed prawn
Specter Bat and Peruvian Picarones
A Mexican Free-tail, Eastern and Western Red on a churro on fried icecream on a jam doughnut in a waffle cone