Hey! One of the coolest things about bats is that they hang upside-down. The evolutionary reasons for this are pretty neat -- it's a consequence of other adaptations they have. Bats are slow fliers compared to birds and their wings don't generate much lift. This sleeping posture also enables bats to escape quickly when threatened.

Bats in nature tend to abandon their colonies after an invasion. This means they have an uneasy detente with birds of prey, who, rather than raiding the nest, lurk outside for a guaranteed meal of two or three each night. This arrangement solidifies over time -- because the byproducts of bats' digestion include toxic ammonia, extremely large roosts such as Bracken Cave in Texas are practically uninhabitable to non-bats. A human interloper would be choking and gasping within seconds, and dead within minutes. (This is no joke!)

Of course, this big hungry vampire bat hanging upside-down in your closet has nowhere to flee, even if it is uniquely suited to. Maybe it's pleased! Or maybe this grin has the purpose of saving face.

Please click through to the artist's original uploads of this image -- leave comments, likes, et cetera! Emily is a skilled professional who probably doesn't really need my promotion, but she seems to like praise and produces large amounts of really good art.

• https://mastodon.art/@emilylorange/102130696855731351
• https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31607724/
• https://emilylorange.tumblr.com/post/185022807357/recent-commission-for-a-private-client
• https://twitter.com/emilylorange/status/1130595945857421312
• https://www.weasyl.com/~emilylorange/submissions/1780254/delighted-to-meet-you

She also has an Instagram and a personal website here:

• https://www.instagram.com/emilylorange/
• https://emilylorange.tumblr.com/

I have also uploaded this image to FurAffinity here:

• https://www.furaffinity.net/view/32913883/

(Citations for the bat facts: Jason Corbett, Bat Conservation International; "The Secret Lives of Bats," Merlin Tuttle)