They’re the cutest lil sky puppies (even the ones that look like lil squishy-faced vampires) but I admit I’d be a bit spooked if one was in my house, only because I don’t want either of us getting hurt in its panic 😬
If you live in an area with vampire bats you most certainly should be scared. They commonly carry rabies, and can transmit it without you knowing you got bit.
In the Americas. European bats are basically entirely rabies free, as are Australian bats. And even then, there are less than a double handful of human rabies cases in the US yearly due to bats.
That said, that double handful of people are all dead, and it hurt the entire time they were dying. Better a hundred needless treatments than one missed case, so if you suspect you may have a bat bite in the US, see a doctor.
I’m neither a biologist nor an epidemiologist, but
In the Americas. European bats are basically entirely rabies free, as are Australian bats.
Did I at any point mention European or Australian bats, or any bat species that doesn’t feed on blood and is therefore highly likely to transmit rabies?
In parts of SA vampire bats are the most common rabies vector, and it’s relatively common to get bit. There’s an increasing number of cases due to habitat destruction
But since you want to talk about European bats
Rabies in bats has been reported in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Norway and Finland.[23] There has been little research in this area, compared to terrestrial rabies, but according to the European Rabies Bulletin, “it can be assumed that bat rabies occurs all over Europe.”[23] Bats in Europe can carry European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1), European bat 2 lyssavirus (EBLV-2), Bokeloh bat lyssavirus (BBLV), West Caucasian bat lyssavirus (WCBV), Lleida bat lyssavirus (LLEBV) and Kotalahti bat lyssavirus.[23] There have been five reported human deaths from rabies acquired from bats in Europe: in Ukraine (1977, species not characterised), Russia (1985, EBLV‐1), Finland (1985, EBLV‐2), the United Kingdom (2002, EBLV‐2) and France (2019, EBLV‐1).[27]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_rabies
The main difference is that humans in Europe are highly unlikely to get bitten unless they go out of their way to fuck with bats. Meanwhile in SA vampire bats cause rabies outbreaks because they feed on people.
Awww what a cutie.
But I prefer this one:
A true beauty to behold.
Last time I got spooped by a bat it was stuck in a glue trap. It was the type of trap you’d lay on the floor to catch roaches and other pests and this dumb little furbaby got stuck in it probably trying to eat the dead bugs.
So first I check with the city’s animal control and they’re like, we don’t handle bats gotta call the state.
So I call the state and they’re like, there’s this lady…
So I call the lady, a bat rehab lady, and she instructs me to put paper towels down around the bat to prevent it from getting more stuck in the glue. As I pushed paper towels in and around the dummy it screamed at me in a bat like fashion and spooked me a little.
Anyways I handed batboy off to the CEO and she ferried it to Bat Rehab Lady.
To me bats are only jump-scary, like paranormal activity.
They’re too cute up close to be afraid of, they only get me when I’m walking at night and one passes close enough for me to hear it flapping for a split second, which doesn’t happen every day, but several times a day since I walk my dogs down a road with a forest to live in on one side and a field filled with juicy bugs for them to eat on the other.
I had one take up residence in the corner of my porch covering, it made me jump a little the first time I noticed it move, but I liked checking on him every morming
so i was doing this gig and charlie was sitting in. this was my first gig with charlie. we went to school together. it was fun doing a gig with charlie. it was a great venue, great acoustics, just the right amount of echoey. sound check and warmups went fine. we start the show, and a bat comes in. starts swooping at charlie’s head, like two feet above it, the entire night. apparently this is just what and where this bat likes to do it and no one told charlie not to set up there. oops!
