Like most of the Lost World's mammals, this new species of blossom bat is nocturnal. Unlike most other New Guinean bats of the supersize flying fox family, the new bat is only about as big as an average North American bat.
The blossom bat is also "kind of like the hummingbird of the bat world," said biologist Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
"It uses a really long tongue to lap up nectar and of course gets pollen on it as it moves from flower to flower, so it's also a pollinator—a bit like a bumblebee," Helgen added.
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