The world's largest bats are shrinking, and hunters may be why

What BBN said about it

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe world's largest bats are getting smaller, and a new study says human hunters may be the reason.

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   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorHank, this is a developing situation, and BBN has team coverage on the ground, in the air, and on a live skull-measurement map I made myself.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorYou made a map.

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   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorResearchers looked at one hundred twenty-one Madagascar flying fox specimens collected over a hundred and fifty years, and skulls from before the nineteen eighties were about six percent longer, Science News reports.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThey first noticed it because the old bats in Chicago looked bigger than the ones caught recently.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorOne researcher said she assumed her analysis was wrong.

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   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorAnd the drop starts around nineteen eighty, when bat hunting likely became more commercial.

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   Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorThese bats can have a wingspan of a metre and a half, folks, and the biggest ones are the easiest to hit.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSo being the biggest bat in the sky is a bad plan.

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    Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorHank, I'm calling the smaller bats the winners here. They've figured out how to go unnoticed, and that's a lesson for all of us.

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    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNobody has ever told me to stand out less and meant it kindly, so I'd say the bats are ahead of me.