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A minor epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus labiatus minor) with its cheek pouches full of fruit in Kenya.

Giving oversized pieces of food encourages natural behaviors within our bats since in the wild there isn't someone making sure everything is perfectly bite sized.

Numbers of long-tailed bats had been dwindling by five percent annually, but, starting in 1990, a conservation effort controlling exotic predators has turned things around, and the bat’s population has been increasing by four percent per year.

Recovery for the short-tailed bat has been even better. A population of only 300 in the Eglinton Valley on the South Island grew to almost 3,000 in 2018. Other populations of short-tailed bats have increased, leading to an overall increase of 65 percent of their numbers.