bats as an interest.

[den]

Why is it that most of the LJ users who list bats as an interest are almost exclusively angsty teens, depression worshippers, wannabe vampires and Goths?

Sorry... "Vampyres."

They seem to have this idea of bats as creatures-of-the-night, shadows-in-the-dark, sort of thing. That also applies to wombats and sugar gliders. Why do you never hear "I am the dreaded phascogale that stalks the night! FEAR ME!" or "BEHOLD! I am the yellow-footed antechinus that stalks the night!!" or something. No, it's always the leathery wing thing and horrible page colours.

You want real evil, walk into the territory of a willy wagtail. Watch him expand those eyebrows at you and swear like Tony Soprano. "Twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter !" he'll shout. Or, for bastard evil, look at magpies. Yes, look at them. Watch them very carefully or you'll end up in hospital with a hole in your skull. For total, utter bastard evil, Cassowarys, which will put you in hospital where you can tell the doctor "Buggered if I know what happened! I was walking through the rain foret minding my own business and the next moment I'm having seven shades of crap kicked out of me" while he sews your intestines back into place.

Bats have wings, so they're evil. Evil I tell you! EEEEEEEEVIL! Those of us who actually know bats invariably think they're cute, and go to pieces when we see pups. Angsty teens, depression worshippers, wannabe vampires and Goths make it hard to search for people who actually know and like bats or are lucky enough to have colonies living in their roofs.

Sorry... Vampyres.

I am The Cassowary that stalks the night of New Orleans, looking for victims to sate my mindless rage.

I don't know why I said that.

Comments

[weibchenwolf.livejournal.com]

You utter bastard. You made me spit the water I was drinking all over my keyboard!

And it's all so damn true too!

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I AM the dreaded wombat that stalks the night!

Well, the person who likes wombats who rarely goes out much after nine. Close enough, right?

I've always noticed that the images of bats I see on badly designed web-pages are rarely the nifty, squish-faced bats that I am familiar with from the attic. Then again, they're usually only recognizeable as bats by the wings, anyway.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Close enough, which is why I didn't make fun of wombats.

The anthro bats I see are always fox-faced, which is a flying-fox/fruitbat feature, AND fanged, which is a vampire feature. The bats never look like they've smacked into the back of a bus and slid to the ground.

And the fangs are always the canines (Vampyre) and never the incisors (vampires.)

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

Chiropteraphobe: "I hate bats!"
Me: "why? what's wrong with bats?"
Chiropteraphobe: "They're rats with wings!"
Me: "Erm, no, they aren't. they're not very closely related to rodents. They're more like lemurs with wings. And what have you got against rats?"
Chiropteraphobe: "But they spread horrible diseases, like rabies! And they get caught in your hair!"
Me: ::sigh::

Where *did* bats get such a bad image problem? The megabats are unbelieveably cute, and the microbats aren't too bad either. Then again, people hate wolves, foxes and weasels, too, for no good reason. ::shrugs::

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

What I find especially funny is the fact that antisocial, violent people claim to like vampire bats, which are one of the most caring, social creatures I've ever heard of.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

For total, utter bastard evil, Cassowarys, which will put you in hospital where you can tell the doctor "Buggered if I know what happened! I was walking through the rain foret minding my own business and the next moment I'm having seven shades of crap kicked out of me" while he sews your intestines back into place.

... And that's where I lost a mouthful of orange juice.

I salute you.

[sweenytod.livejournal.com]

I've eaten Cassowary when I was in PNG. The nationals would bring us a huge chunk of it, we'd roast that bugger and have a huge meal.

Myummm..

Nothing is truely evil if it can be smacked on the head with a stick, burnt with fire, covered with sauce and munched with Gusto! You never saw Dracula served with mushroom sauce, or Genghis wrapped in a butter pastry with a sugar glazing.

Evil is overrated and quite untastey.

I don't know about bats, although I hit one in my car, when it flew into my windshield. Sadly, it was beyond even your healing powerz.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[victory-rose.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a bat (except on tv or in movies), nor am I likely to ever see one, so I've never given any thought as to whether I like or dislike them II think there's more like than dislike).

Although they're often in vampire movies, I don't think I've ever felt that bats are evil. Of course, if I was an angsty teenager, I might see this differently. ;-)

[tatterdemalion.livejournal.com]

You bastard, I nearly choked

[elektron.livejournal.com]

Anything that gets rid of mosquitoes is good enough for me.

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Vampire Bats use their incisors, not the canines?

Ooops.

Oh well, I guess it's probably pretty darn obvious
I don't know as much about bats as I should.

Okay, now that I've been made (more) aware of my own
ignorance, what's a good source of information on
say... fruit bats. Bats which actually look kinda
cute, instead of having all pushed in kinda scarey
faces.

I've got a story to do about a bat...

Scott

picpicpicpicpicpicpic

[sjwt.livejournal.com]

oh do you have any more cougar pics!

Re: picpicpicpicpicpicpic

[victory-rose.livejournal.com]

LOL!

As you can see, this is actually a cougar of the domestic kind (blue tabby Siamese)

;-)

[eleri.livejournal.com]

I love bats. At the lat place I lived, and the place before, you could sit on the lawn in the evening and watch little ones fly after bugs. Dunno what kind they were though, smallish, less than a foot wingspan.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Vampires: http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112365/amphibian/vampire_bat.htm

I always thought Veronica was a great choice for a nurse. She'd instinctively know more about blood than anyone else. I bet Jack has some of her saliva in him right now to berak up clots caused by the broken leg. 8)

Australian flying-foxes:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/flyingfox/default.htm

http://www.amonline.net.au/mammals/gallery/gallery06.htm

there are heaps of other flying-foxes in Africa and Asia, and fruitbats all over the place. Livingston's Flying-fox of east Africal has a 6 foot wingspan!

Blossom bats: These are technically "meabats" but they're so small some "microbats" are larger. Ghost bats (a vampyrum spectrum species) is a carnivore that preys on blossom bats.

http://www.americazoo.com/goto/index/mammals/58.htm
http://www.amonline.net.au/bats/records/bat12.htm

http://www.amonline.net.au/bats/records/bat4.htm

http://faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=307

Re: picpicpicpicpicpicpic

[sjwt.livejournal.com]

awww...
almost as good

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Neat Sites!

Thanks!

Dumb uneducated Bat Question:
Do Fruitbats echolocate? I've heard that they don't,
but I'd imagine with the variety of different species
that some of them do.

Scott

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

No, they don't. They have excellent vision and smell to find their food, and a great navigational sense to remember where the food is.