#bat

#bat

Winners of the Close-up Photographer of the Year 2021The top 100 winners of Close-up Photographer of the Year 03 (2021) or CUPOTY 03 are now featured on its website showing the winners gallery.The Close-up Photographer of the Year website was the brainchild of husband-and-wife duo Tracy and Dan Calder of Winchester, UK. They wanted to put close-up, macro and micro photography on the center stage and be celebrated in its own right.Tracy, a former editor of Outdoor Photography and a features editor at Amateur Photography, has over 20 years experience in the photo magazine industry. She’s also a photography instructor at West Dean College in Sussex, and an author of Close-up & Macro Photography, which has been translated into French and Chinese. Dan is a contributor to Black + White Photography magazine.This year’s Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY 03) has more than 9000 photos from 55 countries across nine different categories. These categories are insects, animals, plants and fungi, underwater, butterflies and dragonflies, intimate landscape, manmade, micro, and young.From each category, the top three winners were chosen alongside with the other finalists. Here are the top three winners per category.#photography #CUPOTY #MacroPhotography #CloseupPhotography #photographycompetitionInsects

Vampire Bats are Full of Love and Kindness -for Each OtherVampire bats take their name from one of our most feared mythical monsters, and what you know about them is probably pretty scary. Yes, they survive by drinking blood. However, vampire bats are tiny, and mostly attack livestock. They bite into the skin, then lap up the blood as it bleeds out. Cattle don't miss the tiny amount of blood taken, and hardly even feel the bite. It's also true that vampire bats can spread rabies. But among their own kind, these bats can be superheroes. According to a recently-published study, 23 vampire bats were captured for a social bonding study that lasted two years. Then they were freed and tracked, along with a couple of dozen vampire bats that had not been in captivity. When they went out hunting at night, bats who had been observed as "friends" during the study managed to meet up with each other again in the wild, where they groomed each other and even shared blood. Now, blood regurgitated from a bat will squick you out, but it's a generous gift to another bat. Scientists suspect they may even trade information on where to find blood during these meetings. Read more about the study at ScienceNews.