Researchers have discovered that tiny fringe-lipped bats in Panama employ a patient, lion-like hunting strategy to capture oversized prey. Using advanced biologging technology, the study reveals their remarkable success rates and energy conservation tactics. This challenges traditional views on how small predators sustain themselves on big meals.
In the dense forests of Panama, fringe-lipped bats (Trachops cirrhosus) defy expectations by hunting like apex predators despite their small size. A team from Aarhus University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute fitted 20 of these bats with miniature biologging devices to track their nocturnal activities. The devices captured movement and sound data, unveiling a "hang-and-wait" strategy where bats remain motionless for extended periods before striking.
The bats target large, energy-rich prey such as frogs, birds, and small mammals, using acute hearing to detect faint sounds like frog mating calls, combined with echolocation and sight for precise attacks. Contrary to assumptions that small predators focus on abundant small prey due to high metabolisms, these bats consume nearly their own 30-gram body weight in a single meal. Prey averaged 7% of the bat's weight, with some captures—like the 20-gram Rosenberg's gladiator tree frog—approaching the bats' size. Chewing times reached up to 84 minutes for the largest meals.
The study, published in Current Biology in 2025, found bats spend 89% of their time resting to conserve energy, with most hunting flights lasting under three minutes and averaging just eight seconds. Their success rate stands at about 50%, surpassing lions (14%) and polar bears (2%). Older bats showed greater skill in handling bigger prey, indicating experience enhances precision.
"It was incredible to discover that these bats hunt like big predators trapped in tiny bodies," said lead author Leonie Baier, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at Aarhus University and research fellow at STRI. "Instead of spending the night constantly on the wing, they wait patiently, strike with high precision, and sometimes end up catching enormous, energy-rich prey."
Senior author Laura Stidsholt, assistant professor at Aarhus University, added: "We wanted to understand what these bats are actually doing out there in the dark—so we listened in, much like the bats themselves listen to their prey. With the data from our biologging tags... we were able to reconstruct entire hunting sequences in the wild."
This research resolves a biological puzzle about how nine carnivorous bat species thrive on vertebrate prey, highlighting their adaptive efficiency in resource-scarce environments.