Posted on August 20, 2014 by Fancy Dress Ball
What do you mean, you’ve never heard of International Bat Night?
The last weekend in August is International Bat Night; this year that’s the night of the 30th-31st.
Since 1997, International Bat Night has been celebrated in over 30 countries.
Conservation agencies and organisations provide information to the public about bats; there are often bat walks and many places will offer the chance to listen to bats’ sounds using ultrasound technology.
Bats are traditionally seen as quite scary, with fake bats being used to decorate many a Halloween party.
For a lot of people, the only thing they know of bats is that they can carry rabies.
They’re nocturnal, they hang upside down in caves and… that scene from The Goonies.
Actually, now you watch it back, that’s not such a scary example of bats – but at the time, we were all terrified, right?
Right?
The thing with bats is, they seem to have been adopted by all of the horror/vampire movies, and given something of a bad reputation.
Here are some things you may not know about bats:
- Some bats do drink blood, but the majority of bats live on insect blood, and nobody has yet discovered a bat whose main, preferred source of sustenance is human blood.
- Bats are actually very useful – in drinking insect blood, they play a vital part in ecosystems, keeping the insect population under control.
- In the UK, we have 18 different species of bat.
- Bats are the only mammal capable of continued flight – all other mammals glide.
- Bats can live for over 20 years
- While that typical scene of thousands of bats flying out of a cave is realistic in some cases, many bats live alone.
- Pteropus bats are known as flying foxes, and are the largest species of bat. Here’s a picture:
If you would like to take part in International Bat Night, take a look at the Eurobats website to find local events.
And of course, remember that not all bats are blood-sucking fiends. Some of them are sworn to protect…
Related posts:
- Halloween Costumes To Scare You To The Bone
- Halloween Fancy Dress – Beyond Costumes
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