Some Bats are Downright Creepy
With as many adorable bat videos and memes being shared around the Internet, it's easy to wonder why people were ever afraid of bats. They're just adorable little fruit-eaters, right? Well... sort of. Some bats do drink blood, but it's usually that of an animal like a cow rather than humans (although humans have been bitten, of course). But there are some bats that are just so awkward and downright freaky looking that it's easy to understand why some people have bat phobias.
Take the Griffin's leaf-nosed bat, which lives in Vietnam. Its nose looks like a squashed pile of leaves, which is downright alarming if you've never seen a roundleaf bat. It appears to look quite alien! Then there is the spotted bat, which has an unfortunate pair of ears. If Dumbo were a bat, he would be a spotted one.
It's important to continue to fight for bats by protecting them from white nose syndrome, providing habitats and building bat boxes, but if you're interested in freaky-looking bats, there is no shortage of them to find!
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia