The Flying Fox

I saw it in the distance one evening a few days back. I thought it might be hawk from the size of its wingspan. Then I saw it again the next evening around dusk and it was big, maybe a huge owl or something, it was too far away to see.
Tonight I got a good look at it, a bat, and a flipping huge one at that. Goes to show you my experience with the critters around here, I wasn't aware there were monster bats living in the city. This thing was big enough that I nearly dropped my beer when it came floating through. I half expected Godzilla to sound off and come stomping through a few building to engage it.
Apparently this is a fruit bat, also called a "flying fox". It appears that it could drag off babies or small dogs so I can't imagine what kind of fruit this thing eats to get that big. Now I have seen bats in the states and they flap and flutter and dart around at high speed but this thing, it coasted and floated and put in a only a few commanding strokes just like a large bird would do. I could see the veins silhouetted in its wings even in the dwindling light. It went from a prone and soaring, to upright and landing in a tree top in a powerful slow motion. I went online to find out what the hell this thing is, and this is the description I found on a local expat forum:


"They're Siamese Brain Bats. They have a single long hollow fang which they use to inject an anaesthetic into the skulls of their victims, they then drink the victim's brains. Generally the bat leaves between 5 to 10% of the victims brain tissue intact which is just about enough for the survivor to retain the ability to walk, eat, and poop. The charitably inclined King Rama 7 established the modern Thai Civil Service and a representative democracy in 1932 to provide these poor souls with the only work of which they were now capable, bureaucracy and politics. Even today over 85% of Thai Politicians and Bureaucrats are victims of Brain Bat attacks and are maintained at public expense.


Attacks on farangs(foreigners) are rarer and the Thai health service provides no support for farang victims. Generally the slobbering, brain-damaged, farang survivors of these attacks are forced to eke out a sad living by opening beer-bars in Pattaya."