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Chapter Bats in Folklore and Culture: A Review of Historical Perceptions

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Chapter

Bats in Folklore and Culture:

A Review of Historical Perceptions
around the World
Alan Sieradzki and Heimo Mikkola

Abstract

Belief systems of people have always been closely related to animals, which are
symbolized in traditional narratives. Sociocultural definitions of animals as “good
or evil” have persisted throughout the history of human beings. In the West, bats
are often perceived as evil spirits, Vampires, and harbingers of death, while some
cultures across the Asia-Pacific region associate bats with good fortune. Here,
we review documented narratives and surveys from around the world and our
ethnographic observations from Europe to analyze beliefs associated with bats. We
explore the role that bats play in traditional narratives and the likely reasons for
their salience, including their connections with the extraordinary and supernatural.
Finally, we discuss shortly the need of education to change attitudes toward bats.
In North America, education has had some effect as more people have started to
understand how useful bats truly are and how few cases of bat-born rabies trans-
mission to humans there have been in the United States and Canada . It remains to
be seen, however, how effectively the further education efforts could halt or even
reverse the decline of the bats around the world. It is also noted that bat tourism
has a potential to conserve bat populations while providing social and economic
benefits to local people in host communities.

Keywords: bats, folklore, culture, literature, myths, disease, need of education

1. Introduction

Bats are truly remarkable creatures, and fossil records indicate that they first
appeared in the Eocene, some 50–55 million years ago [1]. They belong to the Order
Chiroptera. This Order name means “hand-wing” as the bats can hold food between
their forearms. Despite this primate-like gesture, it took quite some time for people
to understand that bats are mammals and not birds. In the third book of Moses in
the Old Testament, bats were identified as birds, while the world-famous Swedish
taxonomist, Carl von Linné (or Linnaeus), only reclassified bats as mammals and
not birds as late as 1758 in the 10th Edition of his “Systema Naturae” [2]. Because of
the resemblance in dentition and such external phenomena as the thoracic position
of the mammae, etc., the great Linnaeus himself ended to place the bat along with
man in the order Primates [3].
Contemporarily the bats were divided based upon morphology and behavior
into two suborders, Microchiroptera (Microbats) and Megachiroptera (Flying Foxes
and Old World Fruit Bats) [4]. New molecular biology findings indicate that there

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Bats - Disease-Prone but Beneficial

are two new Suborders, Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, not coinciding

with the earlier subordinate classification [5].
There are more than 1400 bat species worldwide, and they make up roughly
20% of the world’s extant mammals [6]. They are hugely beneficial to man and play
a major role in the well-being of the world’s ecosystems. Not only do they prey upon
insects that are harmful to agriculture, but they also prey upon mosquitoes and
other virus-carrying insects and play a major role in pollinating and spreading the
seeds of many of the fruits we enjoy. In some parts of the world, they are a valu-
able food source, and their body parts are used in traditional medicine, while their
guano is collected and used as agricultural fertilizer [7]. Why is it then that while
in some parts of the world this beneficial creature is seen as a symbol of good luck
and good fortune, in many societies it is viewed with fear and loathing? Here, using
documented narratives, surveys, popular literature, and cinema, we will explore the
various myths, legends, and attitudes to bats from around the world.

2. Europe

In the Bible, the bat is seen to be “unclean” [8], while its nocturnal activities ally
it to malevolent spirits that roam the land when darkness has fallen. It is no real
surprise that in a Christian Europe throughout history, the bat has been associated
with the Devil, evil spirits, and witches [9]. Bats also have wings. Tertullian, an
early Christian author from Carthage (155–220), claimed that the Devil and his
angels had wings [10], and around 1314, Dante wrote that the Devil’s wings had no
feathers, “but was in form and texture like a bat’s” [11]. In 1332, a French noble-
woman, Lady Jacaume of Bayonne [12], “was publicly burned to death as a witch
because ‘crowds of bats’ were seen about her house and garden.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) also equated bats with witches, spells, and
curses. In Macbeth (1605), there is the incantation of the three witches: “Eye of
newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog,” while there is Caliban’s curse
on Prospero in The Tempest (1610–1611): “All the charms of Sycorax, toads, beetles
and bats, light on you.”
There is also, of course, the European connection with bats to vampirism.
Vampires had been part of Slavic folklore in Eastern Europe since the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, but it was not until the nineteenth century that popular
fictional literature, predominantly through Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” in 1897, would
forever tie bats and vampires together, with the protagonist, Count Dracula, being
able to transform himself into a huge bat [13]. While the three species of true
vampire bats (common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus, hairy-legged vampire bat
Diphylla ecaudata, and white-winged vampire bat Diaemus youngi) are microbats,
measuring just a few centimeters in length, it was the exaggerated reports from
early explorers and adventurers that gave the public the image of these huge blood-
sucking creatures. In 1796, John Stedman wrote of being bitten by a vampire in
Guiana, describing it as “a bat of monstrous size, that sucks the blood from men and
cattle when they are fast asleep, even sometimes till they die.” [14]. This associa-
tion between giant bats and vampires continues to the present day through popular
fiction and cinema (Figure 1).
As with that other iconic nocturnal creature, the owl, the bat has a myriad of very
strange old wives’ tales and superstitions surrounding it [15]. Here are just a few:
If a bat flies into your house, look out for bedbugs.
A bat flying into a building means that is going to rain.
It’s unlucky to see a bat in the daytime.

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Bats in Folklore and Culture: A Review of Historical Perceptions around the World
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102368

Figure 1.
An old engraving of vampire bats described by early explorers such as John Stedman. Public domain. Courtesy
of “creative commons”—Wikimedia.

Killing a bat shortens your life.

Bats in a church during a wedding ceremony is a bad omen.
Bats in the house mean a death in the house or is a sign that the occupants will
soon be leaving.
Bats flying vertically upwards and then dropping back to earth means that the
Witches Hour has come.
Bats are symbolic of bad luck, especially when they call while flying early in the
evening.
If a bat flies into a house and then escapes, there will be a death in the family. Kill
the bat before it escapes, and everyone will be safe.
If a bat flies into a kitchen and at once hangs on to the ceiling, it is a lucky omen,
but if it circles the room twice before alighting, it is a bad omen.
One of the most enduring old wives’ tales from Europe is that bats will get
tangled in women’s hair and would have to be removed with a pair of scissors.
Between 1958 and 1961, Gathorne-Hardy, Fifth Earl of Cranbrook, a renowned
conservationist and a founding member and former President of the Mammal
Society, decided to put this old superstition to the test [16]. Using two willing
female teenagers, one with “relatively short curly hair” and one with “longer wavy hair
was done up behind in a bun,” Cranbrook took turns in placing four different spe-
cies of bat on their heads. A noctule bat Nyctalus noctula, a long-eared bat Plecotus
auritus, a Natters bat Myotis nattereri and a Daubenton’s bat Myotis daubentonii. In
all four cases, the bats each walked about the volunteers’ hair without becoming
entangled in any way and finally took flight without any difficulty. The experiment
was repeated several times with the same results [16].

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Bats - Disease-Prone but Beneficial

3. Africa

Bats have fascinated humans for millennia, and this cultural and spiritual relevance
is reflected in the presence of bat symbols in Egyptian tombs from 2000 BC [7]. In
Africa, “house bats” occur in distinct colors and sizes, but they are usually hard to
identify. Although they live near humans and are common, it appears that some of the
species have not been described and given scientific names [17]. To date, ethnobiologi-
cal information regarding bats in Africa has mainly focused on utilitarian aspects of
bats as food and medicine, whereas knowledge concerning symbolism and beliefs
surrounding bats in that continent has not been assembled, apart from ancient Africa
[18], Ghana [19, 20], Kenya [21], and Madagascar [22].
Among the Ibibio people of southern Nigeria, bats are associated with witch-
craft, and for any bat to fly into a house and touch a person is a sure sign that this
person is thereafter bewitched and will soon perish because his or her heart is eaten
at night while he or she sleeps. Also, in Nilotic Sudan, witchcraft was usually per-
formed at night, and therefore, owls and bats were associated with it. In the Anglo-
Egyptian Sudan, spirits, devils, and witches had their general name “Bitaboh,”
wood-goblins being specially called “Ronga.” All the bats were comprehended under
the same name, especially the Yellow-winged Bat Lavia frons, formerly Megaderma
frons, which flutters about from tree to tree in broad daylight [18].
In Cameroon, the superstition of the vampire is attached to bats. Among the Ndop
people, bats, owls, and bush-cats are said to be witch shapes. Should a bat or an owl
come near the house, or a bush-cat defecate in the compound, the owner must go at
once to diviner to discover what remedies must be taken to ward off the evil. A witch
shape is believed to be capable to suck out the life of a sleeping man or woman [18].
From Sierra Leone comes an account of the gruesome habits of the Hammer-headed
Fruit Bat Hypsignathus monstrosus. It is the largest bat found in continental Africa and
was believed to suck the blood of sleeping children until they die. It was called “Boman,”
and it was able to turn into a stone or a snake at will. Interestingly, blood sucking has
been attributed to bats both in Cameroon and Sierra Leone despite the countries being
widely separated and when no such type of bat is found in Africa [19].
Although the bats roost in the sacred forest in Ghana, they are not regarded
as sacred animals. Bat hunting is illegal, but hunters readily admitted to having
hunted bats and even directed the research people to other hunters. Bat meat is
widely consumed because it is considered more delicious than other types of meat.
However, consumption was influenced by religious beliefs, food taboos, and some
myths about bats. Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists did not consume bat meat.
Men hunt and consume bats more often than women who have fears that consum-
ing bat meat would give them strange or deformed children. Bats are not associated
with any diseases, and it was felt to be safe to eat bat meat, but both studies were
conducted before the 2013 Ebola outbreak (Figure 2) [19, 20].
In Kenya, a bat attitude questionnaire was presented to 394 people living around
the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. Belief in myths seemed to prevail among those sur-
veyed. Just over one-third of the respondents (36%) did not see any benefits of bats
to humans. Nearly another third reported actively killing bats or destroying bat
roosts, and most respondents associated bats with the destruction of farmers’ fruits,
especially mangoes. Female respondents in this study showed more negative atti-
tudes and a stronger belief in myths about bats than males. Only older and somewhat
educated people reported more positive attitudes toward bats than others [21].
In Madagascar, the exploitation of bats for bush meat regularly takes place
during periods of food shortage, especially fruit bats, which are heavily hunted.
The study estimated that in the karstic Mahafaly Plateau some 50–100 caves are
exploited for bats and that between 70,000 and 140,000 Microchiroptera bats

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Bats in Folklore and Culture: A Review of Historical Perceptions around the World
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102368

Figure 2.
Large-bodied old-world fruit bats, like this Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus, are disproportionally
targeted to be hunted for bushmeat. Photo credit to “creative commons” https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-sa/4.0/legalcode.

may be collected annually in the region. This is bound to threaten the continued
existence of local bat populations. Thus, more famine relief food aid is desperately
needed to reduce the bush meat use during the food crises, which are nearly annual
in the region [22].
In Malawi, negative bat superstitions caused recently quite disproportionate
behavior when rural people in southern parts of the country killed nine people
accusing them to be “vampire bats” [23]. The police arrested 200 vigilante youth
suspected of involvement in gangs that attacked persons allegedly engaged in
vampirism. Medics said there is no truth or clinical evidence that blood suckers or
vampires exist in Malawi, and the United Nations mission withdrew its personnel
from the riots-affected areas [24].

4. Southwest Asia

In southwest Asia, bat folklore has been documented between Iran, India, and
Myanmar [25–27]. In southwest Asia, the bat is predominantly perceived as a strange,

5
Bats - Disease-Prone but Beneficial

negative, and demonic animal that should be avoided. Usually, it is regarded as a bad
omen even if seen in a dream. The bat is a devil who flies only in the night because it
would die if flying in the daytime [25].
In India, a total of 3059 high school students from 36 schools were questioned on
their bat perceptions. Most students (56%) reported seeing bats in their locality. Half
of the students knew that bats are mammals, but 26% believed them to be birds, some
thought of them being amphibians (12%) or reptiles (11%); 37% disliked the bats,
and 27% liked them remaining seeing them as indifferent. A substantial proportion
(53%) thought that bats have medicinal value, but 35% saw them only as harmful
creatures. They were believed to destroy trees and damage fruits in gardens. Over
half of the students (57%) did not know anybody in their neighborhood who would
hunt bats. The felling of roosting trees was mentioned as bat death reason by 29% and
hunting by 18%. Most students wanted to participate in bat conservation activities,
including some students who disliked bats. The study concluded that conservation-
related education should be included in the school curriculum to ensure that students
would appreciate not only the importance of bats but of all wildlife [26].
Bats are also revered throughout India. In Madurai, worshippers of the Muni
god regard Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius, formerly Pteropus giganteus, as sacred
and protect colonies for fear of heavy punishment. However, after offering prayers,
dead bats found on the ground can be eaten. In Pudukkottai, roosting P. medius
is seen as the guardian of the sacred groves, and in Bihar, that bat brings wealth.
Orchard owners in Myanmar believe that allowing bats to roost and feed in the
garden ensures prosperity and well-being. Flying fox’s emergence time is believed
in Myanmar to indicate the weather: an early or no emergence foretells a coming
storm. Bats are also used as allegories to denote romantic or parental love in the
poetry of Tamil Sangam literature in India [27–29].
In Hunza, Pakistan, a witch appears in the shape of a bat, and it plays a role in
magical practice in southwest Asia. In the Punjab, northern India, magicians use bat
bones to prepare their concoctions, and with the bat blood, they write amulets for
malevolent and antisocial magic. Between Iran and Rajasthan, north-western India,
there is the widespread public belief that if a bat lives somewhere in the house or
hangs on the roof, this would mean bad luck for the owner [25]. In Pakistan, one
belief is that if a bat enters one’s ear, it can never be removed and contact with bat
urine is thought to cause eczema. On the other hand, the body fat of Indian Flying
Fox is used to make massage oil to cure rheumatic pains, while drinking water from
a bat’s wing is said to sharpen one’s memory [30]. In Sri Lanka, it is believed that
one may be reincarnated as a bat for denying another person drinking water [31].
Pre-Islamic magical belief in Hunza said that “if the lady would once offer the
cooked meat of bat to her guests, hiding it behind her back while serving” her family
would never be without meat for their whole life [25]. Interestingly, Islamic taboo,
considers bat as harām meaning that it is forbidden as food. The official Islamic
view is exempting bats from being killed because it would carry bad luck to kill a
bat [32]. One reason not to kill bats is that “female bats have breasts and are mothers
like human females” [25].
Bats are also seen as useful in Iran, India, and Pakistan because people are col-
lecting bat guano as a natural fertilizer.

5. Southeast Asia

Throughout Southeast Asia, bats are associated with luck and good fortune and
used as spiritual totems [6, 27]. Since the fourteenth century, Chinese culture has
regarded bats as lucky animals, and these blessing bat symbols have been prevalent in

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Bats in Folklore and Culture: A Review of Historical Perceptions around the World
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102368

Chinese arts over the centuries [33]. In Indonesia, farmers in South Sulawesi believe
that flying foxes roosting near their rice fields guarantee a good harvest [27]. Similarly,
fishermen in the Philippines consider mangrove roosting flying foxes to be guardians
of their fishing grounds and to increase fish and shellfish catch [27]. In Malaysian
Borneo, people consider it taboo to disturb a fruit bat. If a man whose wife is nearing
childbirth unthinkingly does so, some harm may befall the unborn baby [34].
In Malaysia, a face-to-face survey was conducted in Penang Island to assess
knowledge and awareness level toward bat conservation efforts. The bat populations
in Malaysia are decreasing in 26% of species and only 15% are still stable. Bats are
shot for sport or to eradicate them from fruit plantations. Bats are also considered
as wild exotic meat, which is widely consumed in urban areas. Besides hunting, the
primary threats to bat species include habitat loss and degradation through logging.
Most respondents were less likely to value the importance of bats in the ecosystem,
so creating a conservation education to connect people with nature is not easy. The
oldest age group (51–70 years old) of 150 respondents were mostly aware of the bat
conservation efforts. The higher level of education was not always reflected in the
positive attitudes toward environment and wildlife issues. Participation by local
people is vital to achieving successful conservation programs [35].
Iban people in Sarawak, Borneo, believe that a bat flying into the house indicates
a shaman bringing good vibes, conferring protection against any harm, while in
Thailand, if a bat enters a house but immediately flies away, it is believed to change
bad luck to good. Should the bat stay and eat the fruit in the house, bad luck will
befall the owner [27].
In northern Thailand, harming bats incurs a curse because bats are sacred for
Buddhists [36]. In Irian Jaya of Indonesia, former head-hunters considered flying foxes
to be head-hunters too, as they took the “head” of the tree by consuming its fruit [37].
Despite positive associations toward bats, they are widely consumed as food and
medicine throughout Asia, except in Brunei and Singapore. In Malaysia, ethnic Han
Chinese, non-Muslim indigenous groups, and ethnic Malays hunt flying foxes and
trade them to the Chinese [27]. In Indonesia, Iban people in Kalimantan also hunt

Figure 3.
Bats for eating in the Laos marketplace . Photo credit: Stan Delone “creative common”—Wikimedia. https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode.

7
Bats - Disease-Prone but Beneficial

fruit bats for consumption, and mainly Christian people in North Sulawesi regularly
eat flying foxes (Black Flying Fox Pteropus alecto and Sulawesi Fruit Bat Acerodon
celebensis) especially during the Christmas season [38, 39].
There exists a widespread belief in Southeast Asia that eating bat meat cures
asthma [27]. In many parts of Indonesia, people specifically consume bats’ livers
and hearts as medicine [39]. In Thailand, bat meat or blood is eaten for muscle pain,
increasing virility and longevity [36]. In Malaysia, older generations prevented
thievery by mixing flying fox blood with milky mangrove Excoecaria agallocha tree
sap to cause violent intestinal inflammation [40].
In Vietnam, many mounted bat species are sold in souvenir shops, and in Laos,
bats are traded in several markets (Figure 3) [41, 42]. There is a Japanese word for
bat, komori, which is said to mean “mosquito slaughterer.” In Japanese mythology,
very old bats can transform into nobusuma, spirit animals resembling flying squir-
rels that land on their victims’ faces at night to feed off blood [43]. Indigenous Ainu
people in Japan worshipped the crafty and wise bat god Kappa kamui, who kept
away demons and diseases [44].

6. Pacific region

A legend tells that in Fiji, a giant white vampire bat acts as a messenger, and one
finds bats as gods in both Tikopian and Tongan myths. The Tongan king’s Samoan wife
was rescued by flying foxes, and she honored her rescuers later by naming her son
Tonumaipe’a (= “rescued by flying foxes”) [45]. People in Vanuatu consider Pacific
Flying Fox Pteropus tonganus as their ancestor and claim to be able to communicate
with them [46]. In Makira, Solomon Islands, local people value traditional currency
for transactions, such as bride price, and use the canine teeth of flying foxes as a tra-
ditional currency [47]. Samoan people prize flying fox meat as a delicacy and as a gift
to elders, but commercial hunting and export of the meat are culturally frowned. The
general attitude is that the flying fox is part of the forest, and the vast majority support
the protection of Pteropus samoensis and P. tonganus [45]. Samoans said that flying foxes
were cheeky and courageous, making it a popular tattoo motif [48].
In New Zealand, Māori people associate bats, pekapeka, with the mythical
nocturnal bird hokioi that foretells death [49]. In 2021, a bat won New Zealand’s Bird
of the Year competition name of which in Māori language is Te Manu Rongonui o te
Tau, and the word “Manu” means “flying creatures,” including bats. The decision
to include the New Zealand long-tailed bat Chalinolobus tuberculatus also known
as pekapeka-tou-roa (Māori) in the 2021 Bird of the Year competition did cause a
bit of controversy, some people saying the country had gone “batty.” However, the
long-tailed bat got more than 7000 votes, bringing a clear victory to this critically
endangered animal, despite not being a bird [50].

7. Central and South America

The diversity of South American bats is impressive as there are more bats, and
more bat species, than in any other part of the world [51, 52]. In pre-Columbian
Central and South America, the bat played an important role in the religions and social
structures of the various cultures, most notably with the Moche people of Peru and the
Maya of Guatemala. In northern Argentina, a Toba story tells of the leader of the very
first people—a hero bat or batman who was teaching people all they needed to know
as human beings. Similarly, the Ge tribe in Brazil moved through the night following a
bat that looked for light toward which to guide the people (Figure 4) [51, 52].

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Bats in Folklore and Culture: A Review of Historical Perceptions around the World
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102368

Figure 4.
A bat-headed figure from Costa Rica made by pre-Colombian Diquis people sometimes between 700 and
1530 AD. Photo credit: Public domain “creative commons”—Wikimedia.

The bat was central to Maya religion and social structure. One clan of the
Cakchiquel Maya, of the highlands of Guatemala, was named the Zotzil (=belong-
ing to the bat), whose deity was a bat. The Tzotzil Maya lived, and continue to live
to this day, on the plateau of Chiapas in southern Mexico. They called themselves
Zotzil uinic (batmen), claiming that their ancestors discovered a stone bat, which
they took as their god, and their chief town was named Zinacantlan (=place of
the bats) by Nahuatl merchants from Mexico [53]. Generally, the Maya revered a
Vampire Bat god, Camazotz, the death bat, which killed dying men on their way to
the center of the earth [51, 52].
The north coast of Peru is one of the South American regions where bat iconog-
raphy is particularly prominent [51]. The Moche people in Peru were aware of the
connection between bats and plants. On Mochica pottery, a bat is depicted with the
Sweetsop Annona squamosa, a common fruit also known as Sugar Apple or Pinha,
the seeds of which are dispersed by bats [51, 52]. Some of their ceramic vessels have
an anthropomorphic bat that is an agent of human sacrifice, with a knife in one
hand and a human head in the other. Sometimes a Mochica bat carries a warclub
and a small human captive. The enormous size of the bat and the small human head
or body indicate supernatural status for the bat [51].
The widespread sacrificial association derives largely from the habits of the
Common Vampire Bat that feeds exclusively on the blood of vertebrates (Figure 5).
In many places, blood sacrifice was believed to benefit agriculture, and therefore,
bats had agricultural, as well as death, connections for Pre-Columbian peoples and
in Oaxaca, Mexico, a bat deity was associated with maize [51]. Surprisingly little
folklore exists specifically about Vampire bats, and Pre-Columbian erotic scenes do
not involve bats although some folklore portrays female bats as alluring to men.
One Yupa man in northern Colombia started night after night to drink and
flirt with a female bat when he was returning from an evening hunt. Finally, his
wife realized what he was doing and set fire to the tree and killed her husband and
the bats [54]. Sometimes bats are husbands as in a Mataco lore from Argentina. A
woman noted that her husband had a round tail and dropped the vessel of water
she was bringing to him. The bat husband then cut off her head and those of other

9
Bats - Disease-Prone but Beneficial

Figure 5.
Common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus is the one reason for global Chiroptophobia although it is very
small weighing about 55 grams and only occurring in central and South America. Photo credit: Uwe Schmidt.
“Creative commons”—Wikimedia. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.

Indians and put all heads in the tree hole where he was living [55]. Also, a Tacana
woman in Bolivia was killing a bat while not realizing that it was her husband [34].
In some folklore, bats often have sexual connotations, which may relate to fertil-
ity and agriculture as bats are important seed dispersers and pollinators of many
fruit trees. Bat guano provides one reason for the fertility associations [56].
In Caribbean South America and the Antilles, bat images are associated with death
rites and burials in archeological context [57], and in Cuba, a Taino ball court was bat-
shaped, the ballgame being a sacrificial ritual [58]. In Jamaica, the bat and the owl were
very important symbols in Taino mythology and death. The bat represented the opias
(= spirits of the dead people) to the Taino. Fruit-eating bats such as Jamaican fruit bat
Artibeus jamaicensis loves feeding on guavas, which is also the favorite food of the Taino
spirits of the dead. In Jamaican folklore, bats are also perceived as death images [59].
In northern Guiana, Bat Mountain is the home of ” killer bats,” and there is also
a killer bat in folklore from Venezuela. Decapitating bat demons appears in various
myths in Amazonia and to the south in northern Argentina. These myths associate
killer bats with fire as the bat burns its victims and is, in turn, thrown into the fire
[60–62]. One bat, whose habits may have fostered these tales of decapitating bats,
is the false vampire Vampyrum spectrum. It is the largest New World bat with a yard
wingspan. It is a carnivore, eating birds and other vertebrates, occasionally taking
even other species of bats. When capturing its prey, it grabs the neck, sometimes
killing the prey with a single powerful bite [51, 52].

8. North America

The artificial bat became a shorthand for horror in 1931, jiggled on a fishing line
behind a Hungarian-American actor Béla Ferenc Dezsö Blaskó, known profession-
ally as Bela Lugosi in the genre-defining movie Dracula. Shockingly, US news media
recently reported shortages of Halloween decorations—plastic bats among them,
doubtless—due to the world supply crunch [63].
Monstrous beyond imagining, all-consuming, blacker than blackest night, the
hideous Satan in the Night on Bald Mountain section of Walt Disney’s animated
film Fantasia (1940) spreads gigantic bat wings as it turns fiery eyes toward the lost
souls about to be engulfed in wrath and flames [64]. This North American bat-like

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102368

depiction should come as no surprise; it is merely another manifestation of the

fear, horror, and superstition with which bats have been regarded down through
ages [64]. Large, often man-eating, bats are found in Hawaiian traditions, and
there is even a legend of an eight-eyed bat in Hawaii. Interestingly, giant bat stories
have persisted in these” flying-fox-less” societies, which evolved from western
Polynesians cultures where flying foxes have been prevalent [45].
Warner Shedd (2000) felt strongly that the level of fear about rabid bats some-
times rises almost paranoid concern in the United States, citing the State of New
York as an example [63]. By using a million dollars annually “to educate” the public
about the dangers of bat-caused rabies in humans simply exacerbates the already
unreasonable fears, which many people have of bats. In its entire history, the state
of New York has recorded only one case of bat-transmitted rabies [64]. Between
the years 1950 and 2007, only 56 cases of bat-borne rabies transmission to humans
occurred in the United States and Canada, which translates to 3.9 cases per billion
person-years [65].
The recent introduction of a fungal disease (WNS = White-nose Syndrome)
from Eurasia to North America has killed millions of bats in North America in the
past decade. Although the exact source of the fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus
destructans, and its mode of introduction into North America remain unknown, the
introduction was most likely mediated by humans, either through direct or indirect
transfer of infectious propagules [66]. People can further move the fungus on their
clothing and caving gear and spread the disease into an area that does not currently.
have the fungus [67].
Even worse have been the vandalism and wanton destruction of bats and their
habitat in North America. A variety of methods have been used to harass and kill
these harmless and beneficial creatures, and some people have even gone so far as
to dynamite caves and abandoned mines where bats roost or hibernate [64]. Lately,
education seems to have some effect, and more and more people have started to
appreciate how useful and amazing bats truly are. It remains to be seen, however, if
this could halt or even reverse the decline of the North American bats [64].

9. Fear of bats

An irrational fear of bats—Chiroptophobia—encompasses negative percep-

tions of bats as disease vectors, pests, or harmful creatures associated with devils
and witchcraft, which represents an important barrier to bat conservation globally
[27]. Especially Western cultural associations of bats with evil spirits, which have
been recorded in Christian tradition as early as the fourteenth century [68] along
with current media sensationalizing bats and the COVID-19 pandemic, are major
hindrances toward bat conservation [69], although there is no reason why public
health messages cannot be consistent with bat conservation.
In Western culture, bats are also associated with vampires causing hysteria and
wrong nomenclature of non-sanguivorous bat species such as Large Flying Fox
Pteropus vampyrus. Despite its scientific name, it feeds exclusively on fruits, nectar,
and flowers and not blood (Figure 6) [70].
Since the fourteenth century, Chinese culture has associated bats with good luck
and blessings [33].
Even cultures that value bats positively may have values conflicting with bat con-
servation. Fruit growers may view fruit bats as crop pests [71]. Han Chinese people
attach positive esthetic values to bats but may still hunt bats at unsustainable levels
[72]. In India, bats are revered in many areas, but still large bat-harvesting festivals
take place. In Nagaland between 7000 and 25,000 cave-dwelling bats (Cave Nectar

11
Bats - Disease-Prone but Beneficial

Figure 6.
Large flying fox Pteropus vampyrus suffers from its misleading scientific name as it is not blood-eating
species but feeds only fruits and flowers. Photo credit: Masteraah. “Creative commons”—Wikimedia. https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/legalcode.

Bat Eonycteris spelaea, Great Roundleaf Bat Hipposideros armiger, and Leschenault’s
Rousette Rousettus leschenaultii) have been annually harvested until recently [73].
So, using positive symbolism alone to promote bat conservation might be insuf-
ficient without accounting for day-to-day relationships of local communities with
bats. Conversely, negative symbolism could promote conservation if it prevents
unsustainable hunting and consumption [27].
It is imperative to obtain more current ethnobiological data to further our under-
standing of contemporary attitudes and relationships with bats—and to document
other cultural traditions not covered in this review.

10. Conclusion

Cultural traditions and beliefs influence the future of the bats, which is
threatened by human exploitation, both directly on bats and indirectly on the
environment.
To summarize shortly the various findings: In the West, bats have been seen as
animals of ill omen, alongside other nocturnal hunters such as owls and black cats.
Around 62% of the Asia-Pacific people had only positive cultural values of bats, 8%
had only neutral values, while 10% had only negative values [27]. The remaining
cultures had combinations of positive, neutral, and negative values.
This suggests that the Asia-Pacific region and its cultures contain far more posi-
tive associations with bats than most European or American societies and, as such,
offer promising examples and opportunities to promote human-bat coexistence.
For example, a number of these countries are investing in the burgeoning industry
of ecotourism by promoting organized visits to bat caves and “bat watching” [74, 75].
In 2005, the privately owned Montfort Bat Cave Sanctuary on Mindanao Island,
south of the Philippines, opened for tourism. The five-chambered cave hosts the
world’s largest known colony of the Geoffroy’s Rousette Fruit Bat, Rousettus amplex-
icaudatus, with an estimated 1.8–2 million individuals [76]. The tour includes a brief

12
Bats in Folklore and Culture: A Review of Historical Perceptions around the World
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102368

20-minute conservation education lecture about bats, caves, and the history of the
Montford Bat Cave Sanctuary. The cave prohibits hunting and guano harvesting,
while income from this ecotourism chiefly flows into local economy and enhances
the sustainability and protection of the cave site (Figures 7 and 8).
Our collection of global perceptions aims to promote a better biocultural rich-
ness for humans and bats as our long-term nocturnal companions. But it became
obvious that the public attitude toward bats has still not been investigated exten-
sively enough throughout the world, namely in contemporary Africa, America,
Australia, and Europe.

Figure 7.
Montfort bat cave entrance in the Philippines with the numerous Geoffroy’s Rousette fruit bats Rousettes
amplexicaudatus. Photo credit: [7] Roy Kabanlit “creative commons”—Wikimedia https://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.

Figure 8.
A close-up photo of the Geoffroy’s Rousette fruit bats Rousettes amplexicaudatus at the Montfort bat cave
entrance. Photo credit: Raniel Jose Castaneda “creative commons” – Wikimedia credit as in Figure 7.

13
Bats - Disease-Prone but Beneficial

Author details

Alan Sieradzki1 and Heimo Mikkola2*

1 The Global Owl Project Carriage Drive, Alexandria, VA, USA

2 Eastern Finland University, Kuopio, Finland

*Address all correspondence to: heimomikkola@yahoo.co.uk

© 2022 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

14
Bats in Folklore and Culture: A Review of Historical Perceptions around the World
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102368

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