Singeing a Fruit Bat Wing with a Blowtorch
Singeing a Fruit Bat Wing with a Blowtorch
Download JPG Butcher singeing a fruit bat wing with a blowtorch at the Tentena meat market - Sulawesi Island, Indonesia
You can see the large claws of the bats, that they use to cling on trees.
Before selling them as bushmeat, the butcher singes the wings with a blowtorch, presumably to kill any parasite that could be on their wing skin.
In many areas of Sulawesi, fruit bats (Megabats, flying foxes) are the main source of meat. They are hunted and caught in the jungle by locals using just fishing lines and hooks
They are then sold as bushmeat in local meat shops. Apparently there are plenty of fruit bats in the jungle, so they are pretty inexpensive on the meat markets.
The bat wings are sold separately from the body of the bat.
Bats carry all kinds of viruses including coronaviruses, but fruit bats do not carry the COVID-19 virus. However all bats can carry the lyssavirus (closely related to rabies) which can cause serious illness in humans. But the chances of getting infected by this bat virus are very small.
More info about fruit bats bushmeat:
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food
