Egyptian Fruit Bat Roost - Tel Aviv University, Israel

This camera is mounted inside an Egyptian fruit bat roost at Tel Aviv University, operated by the Bat Lab for Neuro-Ecology in partnership with the Charter Group of Wildlife Ecology. The bats roost here during daylight hours and are free to come and go as they please, meaning the camera is most active during the day when the colony is at rest, and quieter at night when the bats leave to forage.

Egyptian fruit bats are among the most studied bat species in the world, largely due to research carried out at this university. The Bat Lab for Neuro-Ecology has used the colony to investigate how bats navigate, communicate, and form social bonds, producing findings that have contributed significantly to the broader understanding of mammal cognition and spatial memory.

The bats roost communally, hanging from the mesh ceiling in clusters, and the infrared camera captures their behaviour clearly even in low light. Interaction between individuals is frequent, and the colony's social dynamics, including disputes over roosting positions and grooming behaviour, are regularly visible throughout the day.

Did You Know? Research from this bat colony at Tel Aviv University found that Egyptian fruit bats use a form of social eavesdropping, learning the locations of food sources by listening to the echolocation calls of other bats rather than only finding food through their own navigation. The discovery challenged long-held assumptions about how bat foraging behaviour works.

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