英语听力：Wild China 美丽中国：彩云之南-8（打印版）

Though incredibly strong, bamboos have hollow stems, a perfect shelter for any creatures which can find a way in. This entrance hole was made by a beetle, but it’s being used by a very different animal--a bamboo bat, the size of a bumblebee, it’s one of the tiniest mammals in the world. The entire colony, up to 25 bats, fits into a single section of bamboo stem, smaller than a teacup. It’s quite a squeeze. Half the colony are babies. Though barely a week old, they are already almost as big as their mums. Feeding such a fast-growing brood is hard work. The mums leave to hunt just after dusk each night.

Back in the roost, the young are left on their own. Special pads on their wings help them to grip on the bamboo walls most of the time. The young bats use the extra space to prepare for a life on the wing by preening and stretching. Packed in like sardines, they would make an easy target for a snake. But the snake has no chance of getting in: the entrance is thinner than the width of a pencil. When the mothers return, they can push through the narrow entrance only because of their unusually flattened skulls. But it’s still a squeeze.

Bamboos are exploited in a very different way by another forest dweller. Fresh bamboo shoots are an important forest crop.

英语听力：Wild China 美丽中国：彩云之南-8（在线收听）