Greater Noctule Bat Preying on Songbird Documented in 17th-Century Painting, Study Reveals
A 1611 painting by Flemish artist Jan Brueghel the Elder depicts a greater noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus) snatching a songbird, a behavior only recently confirmed by modern science, according to a study published June 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
What Does the Painting ‘Air’ Depict?
The work, titled Air, features Urania, the Muse of astronomy, surrounded by airborne creatures. Among them, a reddish-brown bat with long wings clamps its jaws around a small, feathered body, according to researchers. The scene aligns with the greater noctule bat’s known hunting habits, as identified by ecologist Pedro Romero-Vidal of the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain.
“I had never encountered a similar scene in any of the many paintings I had previously examined,” Romero-Vidal said.
How Did Scientists Confirm the Bat’s Diet?
While direct observations of bats preying on birds were reported in the past year, evidence of avian consumption by greater noctule bats dates back to the early 2000s. Ilias Foskolos, a bioacoustician at Aarhus University in Denmark, has recorded greater noctule bats catching, dismembering and eating songbirds at high altitudes. He describes the process as “an intense event.”
Feathers from 31 songbird species have been found in greater noctule bat droppings. Foskolos noted that people “probably knew that they go for birds from their droppings” as early as the 17th century, when Brueghel created his painting.
Why Is This Discovery Significant?
The finding highlights how art “can be a valuable source of natural history information,” Romero-Vidal said. “Artists often exercised considerable artistic license,” he said, but “they can still preserve valuable observations about the natural world.”
What Does This Mean for Future Research?
Researchers plan to analyze more historical artworks for ecological clues. Romero-Vidal’s project, which identifies animals in paintings, could reveal other overlooked interactions.
For now, Brueghel’s painting remains a visual testament to a behavior once thought modern.