Thread by @alyb_batgirl

NEXT UP: #2 Southern pudu (Pudu puda) vs #15 Seba's short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) #2020MMM

The short-tailed fruit bat is a medium brown, leaf-nosed bat found in forest through Central America and most of South America (ranges from southern Mexico to southern Brazil) #2020MMM

This small but mighty fruit bat weighs in at about 20 grams (or ~1/10 of a stoat #StoatsAsMeasurement). But size isn't everything! These bats have a secret athletic talent hiding up their wing - BOXING! #TinyTerrors #2020MMM

Male bats hold territories, which they defend to maintain access to females. Bats first try to intimidate their opponents with angry trills & warbles, then start punching with their wrists vib.by/v/QkZgNPHikK
#FloatLikeAButterfly #StingLikeABAT #2020MMM

The pudu is a giant compared to the bat, but is a #TinyTerror in the deer world. The name "pudú" is from Mapudungun, the language of the indigenous Mapuche people of central Chile and Argentina. #2020MMM

Standing just a shade over a foot tall in stunning chestnut-brown, the pudu has the nicely round haunch of many teeny deer, a snazzy pair of antlers, and a remarkably burly neck #TinyPowerLifter #2020MMM

The terror part comes not from their morphology, but from their aggressive defense of their territories "with their antlers and hoofs to the point of killing intruders with their antlers." (JIMÉNEZ 2010; bit.ly/Jimenez2010) #2020MMM

Tonight's showdown takes place in Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes mountains. The oldest national park in Argentina, Nahuel Huapi borders Chile and includes temperate rainforests, giving the pudu #HomeHabitatAdvantage #2020MMM

While the fruit bat feels right at home in the dense understory of this new forest, the average temperature of ~50 degrees F is a much cooler than the bats' usual habitat. #2020MMM

In order to keep its metabolism going, the bat better find some food quick! With their sense of smell that is 100,000x more sensitive to fruit odors than rats (LASKA 1990), our bat starts sniffing around for some tasty fruit #SuperSniffer #2020MMM

Meanwhile, the pudu has the same idea - searching for food. He is officially a 'picky' eater and does "not take large quantities of a single species of plant,but little bits of everything" (JIMÉNEZ 2010) #Nibbler #2020MMM

You might think that the low slung pudu would stick to eating grass. But NO! The pudu prefers 'high growing plants.' (JIMÉNEZ 2010). To get at these lofty tender shoots and leaves, he has to climb. #2020MMM

The pudu does climb, getting on his hind legs to bend a bamboo shoot horizontal, then hopping up delicately to use it as a bridge to reach the upper leaves of a tall bush #VerticallyChallenged #2020MMM

Meanwhile, the bat is out of luck - this new habitat doesn't have any of its favorite fruits like Piper (New World pepper plant), and it's getting pretty chilly. In order to save energy, the bat lands on a a nice horizonally bent bamboo shoot to take a break. #2020MMM

Short-tailed fruit bats can lower their body temperatures in response to cool temperatures or low food supply, an adaptation called facultative hypothermia. #DropItLow #2020MMM

Slowly drifting into torpor, the bat is so out of it, it doesn't hear the munching of the pudu next to its perch. #WhatCouldGoWrong? #2020MMM

After eating his fill, the pudu hops off of the bamboo. The bent branch ricochets upwards, sending the bat skyrocketing!
[gif is animation from the movie "Early Man" of a man being flung by a tree] #Batapult #2020MMM

PUDU CATAPULTS AWAY THE SHORT-TAILED FRUIT BAT!!!!!! #2020MMM