Bats meat

The culture of consumption of bats meat varies depending on the specific country and region: somewhere it is a relatively everyday food served in a cafe and sold in street stalls, while in other areas it is considered an exotic dish. Methods of cooking "bats" also vary: grill , barbecue , deep-frying , sty fry , boiled meat and so on ^{[1] [2]} . Somewhere, only the heads of bats are consumed, and somewhere the internal organs.

Southeast Asia

The Indonesian people of the Minahasans living in the northern part of the island of Sulawesi have a panic dish, which is a fried fried seasoning seasoned with curry ^{[3] [4]} . Often the ingredients for the dish are other spices and herbs and coconut milk ; panic attacks can also serve as the basis for soup. Sometimes panic is plentifully seasoned with pepper and then, according to some reports, it tastes like hot beef ^[5] .

• Different panic options in Indonesia
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  Panic process

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  Pan-fried curry flavored panic

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  Panic Based Soup

In Vietnam, the winged meat is sometimes added to rice porridge , in Laos and Cambodia the heads of bats fried on skewers , in some places are popular snacks. Small bouts in these countries are usually stewed over low heat with vegetables . There are also known cases of the preparation of finely chopped boiled meat of small bats similar to the extract used as a tonic ^[6] . In the Philippines , cases of the use of the species Dobsonia chapmani ^[7] (which is now on the verge of extinction due to intensive hunting) were known.

• Cooking from bats
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  Bats selected for cooking

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  Cleaning the bodies of mice before cooking

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  Mice ready for cooking

Dishes from bats are also known in the southern regions of China. So, in Cantonese cuisine, winged meat is considered an exotic dish. In Taiwan, fried bats can be found in some shops. In addition, soup from undigested mosquitoes extracted from bat droppings is known in Sichuan cuisine ^[7] .

In Japan, the consumption of bats for food took place on the Ryukyu Islands (during the existence of the Ryukyu kingdom) and Ogasarawa , however, it never existed on the scale of tradition and was episodic in nature. The number of winged birds on these islands has always been small, and now they are protected and hunting is prohibited by law.

Oceania

In the 21st century, the consumption of bats from the countries of Oceania is most common in Palau and Vanuatu . So, in Palau, local winged birds are cooked with coconut milk, ginger and various spices and served in local restaurants and sold in stores. It was established that during the period of Japanese rule (1918-1944) in Palau, bat dishes were common food in high schools canteens ^[8] . Vanuatu cuisine is also famous for its winged dishes; the inhabitants of the islands, as well as the representatives of the Philippine aboriginal people agta (aeta) in the past, mainly use bows and arrows for hunting them ^[9] . In New Caledonia , bats hunting is sometimes arranged as a sight for tourists ^[10] .

In Guam and the Mariana Islands (in particular, Saipan ) among the Chamorro people, the consumption of local Marian flying foxes was previously quite common, but now, due to the reduction in the population and migration of bats, the culture of their consumption in food is gradually becoming obsolete. Nevertheless, in Guam, the popularity of such a dish remains high, and due to the decline in local populations, there are cases of semi-illegal importation of Pteropus pselaphon (Bonin flying fox , endemic to Japan) and Samoan flying fox to the island for consumption. The US military, who occupied Ogasarava in 1945 (during the Second World War ), described the cases of net trapping by local residents of Pteropus pselaphon ^{[11] [12]} .

In Papua New Guinea, the consumption of bats is common among the Karan people, who prey on them for meat. According to some sources, the meat of local bats resembles chicken, and soup with spices that are cooked from it is considered more nutritious than the Indonesian counterpart ^{[13] [14]} . Some Australian Aboriginal tribes also eat bats, hunting them with boomerangs .

Africa

Of the countries of West Africa, the consumption of bats for food occurs, for example, in Guinea and Sierra Leone , but is most common in Burkina Faso , where dishes from them are quite popular. Residents of the country hunt them with pistols , airguns or knock down slingshots made from tree branches and rubber bands ^[15] .

In the Seychelles , located in the Indian Ocean , winged meat, seasoned with curry, is one of the main dishes of national Creole cuisine ^[16] .

The consumption of bats in humans can lead to infection by a number of diseases ^[17] .

So, one of the possible causes of the SARS epidemic in China in 2002-2003 is considered infection with this coronavirus through the consumption of meat from infected bats and other wild animals ^[18] .

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 is also often associated with the consumption of bats. One of the initial foci of the epidemic was the city of Guekedu in southern Guinea , in the vicinity of which hunting for bats (among which, as shown by studies, many are infected with the Ebola virus) is very common ^{[19] [20]} .