Flying Fox Fruit Bat Photograph by Science Photo Library

Flying Fox Fruit Bat

by Science Photo Library

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Title

Flying Fox Fruit Bat

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Science Photo Library

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Flying fox fruit bat. 19th-century illustration of a fruit bat, here named as a vampire bat and in the accompanying text given a now-outdated taxonomic name of Vespertilio vampyrus. This illustration is by Heath, from the 1800 volume (Mammalia) of 'General Zoology or Systematic Natural History' by British naturalist George Shaw (1751-1813). Shaw wrote the text (in English and Latin). He was a medical doctor, a Fellow of the Royal Society, co-founder of the Linnean Society and a zoologist at the British Museum. Shaw describes the habit of bats drinking blood, but is sceptical that such a thing would happen. He points only to the certainty with which those accounts of blood letting are described by others. In fact the true vampire bat is a different species to the one drawn here which is a harmless Pteropus fruit bat. It is thought this image inspired Bram Stoker's novel 'Dracula' (1897).

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July 6th, 2016

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