Have you ever been serenaded by fruit bats?

Let me tell you about fruit bats.

It was just before bedtime on the first night of our orientation course at Lake Naivasha, Kenya, when our director, Brian Caston, warned us about fruit bats’ strange nocturnal noise.

He said it sounded like someone striking a note on a xylophone, the same note over and over and over again.

Have you ever tried to sleep through the night with someone playing a xylophone outside your tent? Sigh. . . .

Brian forgot to mention that the note was flat.

According to Learn About Nature’s website, fruit bats are “furry, cute mammals and do not inspire the fear that some people have of bats.” Click here to see pictures of these “furry, cute mammals.”

Researchers with Tel Aviv University discovered fruit bats make various noises to communicate with each other.

Bob Yirka reports, “The researchers grouped the sounds into four main groups: arguing over food, mating and sleeping clusters, and differences of opinion regarding how close was too close when hanging around each other. . . . They noted also that the bats tended to change their tones when addressing members of the opposite gender.” Who knew?! (That sounds awfully similar to the ways and reasons humans make sounds, too!)

And the noise they make is an ultrasonic sound (in frequencies too high for human ears to hear), which they use, instead of vision, to find their dinner and avoid flying into each other.

We owe bats a big asante sana (thank you) because they eat mosquitoes (hooray!) and beetles, distribute seeds and pollinate flowers that result in fruit and vegetables for our dinner tables. In Kenya those would include bananas, mangos, figs, cashews, avocados, and dates. Nowadays fruit bats also play a key role in reforestation in tropical parts of the world. 

Now, in retrospect, it occurs to me that I shouldn’t have been so grouchy about listening to fruit bats all night. It could have been worse. I mean—better a xylophone than a leopard or a lion, right? 

And then there were those lovely birds—400 species at Lake Naivasha alone!

Fish eagle on the left, superb starling on the right

Last week I directed you to a video clip of fish eagles and their shrill, whistle-like cries that reverberated throughout our camp.

I also linked you to raucous ibis calls—sounding like a crow’s “caw!” broadcast over a loudspeaker. They were to become an everyday sound we lived with.

But most of the birdsongs were simply beautiful. I especially enjoyed the mourning doves’ gentle, muffled warble that enveloped us, “woo-OOO-ooh, woo-OOO-ooh.”

At Lake Naivasha, I heard the ring-necked dove’s song for the first time and, above all Kenya’s other birds, its song became the one that most signifies “Africa” to me. Its drawn-out warble, louder than the mourning dove’s song, sounds like, “bup! POW-woe. bup! POW-woe. bup! POW-woe!”

Those birds’ choruses were foreign to me at first, but soon they became familiar and sounded like a grand symphony, especially early in the morning.

Add to that cricket chirps and insect hums, and we were serenaded all day—and night—up close and personal.

Come on back next week and I'll tell you about the superb starling.