Video: A Thousand Bats Fly Over the City

Apparently Cairns, a tropical Australian town sitting between two World Heritage sites, was built around a huge colony of fruit bats that refused to leave. That’s fine by us, because we love just about all animals. And as weird as it may be that there are mammals that can fly (basically rats with wings), we think they’re pretty cute. These particular guys are as large as cats and mostly live in a cluster of big trees right in the middle of the city. Every night around sunset, they slowly wake up and stretch, and then take flight in search of fruit to munch on. We were lucky enough to have an excellent view of the mass ascension from the 9th floor of the Hilton Hotel. And we were so captivated, we went back each night of our stay to witness the amazing event.