Is this an issue for bats when they stay inverted too long? I naively thought they were not concern by this kind of thing, since upside down is a natural pose for them.
It being inverted is the good thing I was mentioning.
I read this article on why bats hang upside down, and it mentions their feet function like the owls do, where this constant grip is actually the relaxed state.
While it looks like this bat could stand on the ground and still keep the weight off of its neck, their legs are designed for hanging and standing is much more difficult and metabolically intensive, so it probably would end up taking much more force on its neck after a short time and it would be losing a ton more energy to keep itself alive until it was freed.
Since it did manage to hook its feet, other than not being able to leave, it could just relax there and even possibly go into torpor to stay alive for a much longer time until rescue, making its chance of surviving this greater than if it were unable to hang on like this.
Is this an issue for bats when they stay inverted too long? I naively thought they were not concern by this kind of thing, since upside down is a natural pose for them.
It being inverted is the good thing I was mentioning.
I read this article on why bats hang upside down, and it mentions their feet function like the owls do, where this constant grip is actually the relaxed state.
While it looks like this bat could stand on the ground and still keep the weight off of its neck, their legs are designed for hanging and standing is much more difficult and metabolically intensive, so it probably would end up taking much more force on its neck after a short time and it would be losing a ton more energy to keep itself alive until it was freed.
Since it did manage to hook its feet, other than not being able to leave, it could just relax there and even possibly go into torpor to stay alive for a much longer time until rescue, making its chance of surviving this greater than if it were unable to hang on like this.