Misconceptions About Bats

Do vampire bats really suck your blood? Are all bats blind? And who is this crime-fighting Manbat I keep hearing about?

In this episode of Misconceptions, Justin takes on some common myths and misconceptions about bats. Let's take a look at these hairy, winged cuties.

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[MogoPrime]

Bats are buddies, and underrated as ecological helpers!

[CuriousArchive]

People: Bats are evil and will drain your blood
Bats: just want a little sip

[JeffinBville]

My mate and I were camping up in Newfoundland and on a walk around the area one night we had these bats flitting around our heads. It was unnerving, at least at first, until we realized they were chomping down on the mosquitoes that were following us as well. If we stood still, we'd get 5 or 7 bats flying around us feasting on the little buggers.

[kennyearthling]

FYI when he said "bats comprise a fifth of all animal species" he meant mammal species.

[Darkfist]

Bats being carriers for things like rabies is, to my knowledge, caused by the way their circulatory system works. As most of them live upside down their tiny hearts need to pump blood more effectively to stop it from pooling in their heads. Apparently that is somehow related to them being able to be carriers for diseases rather then suffering from them. Bats are fascinating little things.

[christianavance]

A co-worker was just showing pics of bats flying in her backyard. They are so pretty around here. And with our higher than normal humidity this month and the fact that none of us have seen mosquitoes I have been extremely thankful for our local bat population. And I only refer to pigeons as 'rats with wings'.

[schuylerspencer]

do misconceptions of commonly seen as aggressive dogs. Love your show, been watching for a long time

[firstcynic]

0:55. You might also figure out that you've been bitten when you develop rabies... and then die.

6:18. The German word for bat is "fledermaus". A direct translation is "flying mouse".

[JiveDadson]

Australian bats, e.g. flying foxes, are cute like little puppies.

[garethtudor]

I'm lucky enough to live in an area (suburban Melbourne, Australia) where there are populations of both micro- and megabats.
On a warm evening, I can hear the fruit bats flapping around, and on some evenings, it's possible to see microbats chasing insects

[connecticutaggie]

In CT, every night there were bats in the sky at our house, they were fun to watch. A couple of times we had one that accidentally made it into our house. When they did, they were hard to find. When they landed, they could crawl into the smallest spaces, often fitting though gaps the was less than 1/2" - crazy.

[tessat]

Several years ago, my son and other neighborhood boys were playing with their Super Soakers and refilling them at the spigot at the back of our house, under our main floor deck. One of the kids discharged his water gun behind him and accidentally knocked a tiny bat down from where it had been roosting under the deck. They came running and yelling for me. I made ABSOLUTELY sure that none of the kids had touched the bat, then put a box with one end open over top of it to protect it from giant, scary children. I had them move the refilling station to the front of the house and had them all leave the bat alone until it could collect itself. It eventually flew away. I called all the parents to have them double check with their kids that no one had touched the bat. So far, all the kids are fine and most have now graduated from high school.

[ignaciobarilignaquy]

Why would you put an image of Batman when talking about Bruce Wayne?? They are in no way related...

[JasonHalversonjaydog]

living on our farm we used to get one in the house once in a while. was always fun trying to catch it and put it back outside

[feloniousbutterfly]

PLEASE talk about misconceptions about wasps. They get a really, really bad wrap when they are also incredibly important pollinators.

[bruceritchings]

We had brown house bats living in our cabin when I was growing up. My Dad made the mistake of hitting one with a canoe paddle, and the bat landed in my Mom's hair. I didn't realize my Mom could scream like that. Dad had to cut the poor bat out of her hair. Bat was fine, but Mom looked pretty silly for a couple of months. After that incident, we just left the bats alone to come and go as they pleased, never had another problem with them.

[alphonsobutlakiv]

I have a big spooky church room with over 100 bats in it, sometimes I'll go in there at night, light the candles and candlears, and drink wine to some classical music and have a nice dracula moment as the bats fly circles around me.

[graphosxp]

Maybe calling them bats which rhymes with rats was a bad move. I suggest a new name like "Fuzzy Wuzzy night birds that don't crap on your car" or "Flying dumbo kitty"! or am i just being batty?

[musicalintentions]

great episode

Justin, nice haircut!

[gazepreyed]

Oh my those Honduran white bats are so cute 🥰