Photographer Captures Rare Photos of Flying Foxes Keeping Cool in Indian River
A photographer has captured a series of amazing images showing flying foxes keeping cool in the scorching heat of Gujarat, India.
Flying foxes are rare and unusual creatures. Despite their name, they’re not foxes at all but do have fox-like faces, with big eyes and pointy snouts. The Indian flying fox is a type of large fruit bat and photographer Hardik Shelat tells PetaPixel he waited two and a half hours in 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures to capture the stunning pictures.
“It was a summer afternoon and we were on a day trip to click these amazing creatures, the fruit bat,” says Shelat. “We waited almost two and a half hours with nothing to see in the intense heat. We were sweating it out and keeping ourselves hydrated by drinking water.”
After a couple of hours, the flying foxes finally made an appearance when they came out of the trees. Fruit bats are generally nocturnal but the scorching temperatures in Gujarat mean they have to come out in the day to drink and cool down.
“They started splashing in the water to keep themselves cool in the heat and drinking water from the river to keep themselves hydrated in the summer temperatures,” Shelat explains. “So this is a very rare activity they do in the summer and we were very lucky to witness and capture it.”
Shelat says it is “very difficult” to capture the creatures as flying foxes approach the water at a rate of knots. Maintaining focus is made even more difficult by the sweltering conditions.
“We felt very happy by the end that we were able to click those amazing moments,” adds Shelat. “Our only objective that day was to capture this fruit bat behavior.”
Shelat has form for sticking it out in tough conditions to get a unique wildlife shot: in 2022, he waited eight hours for a “dream” photograph of a mighty lion drinking from a watering hole. While in 2023, he spent two months in the Indian desert capturing rare photos of striped hyenas.
More of Shelat’s work can be seen on his Instagram.
Image credits: All photos by Hardik Shelat.
