Feb 17, 2008

Dangling Glory

What is this? Why is Ugly Overload featuring a cute pair of...puppies...kittens...er...

Those are bats, people. Bats! Don't be fooled by those warm, brown eyes, or the fuzzy snouts. Those are, if I am not mistaken, flying foxes.

The photo below shows them in all their dangling glory (imagine the photo rotated up-side-down). Cute little heads mounted on devil bodies, complete with leathery wings and talons. It's so wrong.

Photo source: Knuttz.net

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

And testicles. Don't forget the large, prominent testicles.

Raging Wombat said...

Thanks for pointing that out, kritter. Those always add to the nefarious nature of any creature.

W. A. Whipple said...

That 2nd photo looks for all the world like a goth flasher and a bashful-but-curious victim...

Anonymous said...

They're sooo snuggly.. I held some in Indonesia. And got to feed them mango.

amandacheryl said...

nothing u ppl say could make them any less cute to me..I just want to put my face on them.

Anonymous said...

'Nother nifty thing about htese guys is, they're actually from a different Order: megachiropterae, which is a distant relation to primates. That's right; flying foxes are more closely related to us than they are to the small insect-eating bats.

Note: There is some controversy over this who, exactly, the megas are most closely related to. From wikipedia:

"In the 1980s and 1990s, some researchers proposed (based primarily on the similarity of the visual pathways) that the Megachiroptera were in fact more closely affiliated with the primates than the Microchiroptera, with the two groups of bats having therefore evolved flight via convergence (see Flying primates theory[2]. However, a recent flurry of genetic studies strongly support the more longstanding notion that both groups are indeed members of the same clade, the Chiroptera. In fact, some of this evidence, though as yet unresolved, suggest that certain families of microbats (possibly the horseshoe bats, mouse-tailed bats and the false vampires) are evolutionarily closer to the fruit bats than to other microbats.[3]. Nonetheless, the molecular phylogeny data has also been criticised, and this matter remains unresolved,"

Anonymous said...

BATS!

Danielle Lea said...

Even with the leathery wings and talons...I still think they're adorable.

Lindsay said...

I'm going to have to agree with the majority... Still cute, no matter what. :D

Anonymous said...

See, I'm just glad I'm not the only one who thinks they belong on "That Other Overload Site." I really wuvs them! But would they take them? NO WAY! Thanks for having them here, among the folk who love them. - Pj

Anonymous said...

I have cuddles similar bats (fruit bats/flying foxes found in Australia) and they are just soooo cuddly and gentle! The only ugly thing about these guys is lyssavirus. And bat crap.

Anonymous said...

Waaaiit a minute! I thought I sent these to CuteOverload. What are they doing here?
The first pic is of a spectacled flying fox. The second I am not quite sure about because it's in black and white. Sorta.
And the above comment is mine. Took me a minute to realise I submitted them.
Oops.