Despite all the sinister associations bats perform an essential role in the environment, adding greatly to the wellbeing of humanity. Then he jumped into it and sat in it for a while and then climbed out. There is also, of course, the European connection with bats to vampirism. In Sri Lanka, it is believed that one may be reincarnated as a bat for denying another person drinking water [31]. This association between giant bats and vampires continues to the present day through popular fiction and cinema (Figure 1). The third reference is in Isaiah 2:20. Its unlucky to see a bat in the daytime. Bats were associated with longevity and pleasure in both ancient Chinese and Persian traditions. The way they live their lives and their behaviour places them somewhere betwixt and between, appearing as neither one thing, nor the other. A woman noted that her husband had a round tail and dropped the vessel of water she was bringing to him. UNITED KINGDOM. Why Our collection of global perceptions aims to promote a better biocultural richness for humans and bats as our long-term nocturnal companions. In other parts of the world, fruit bats are occasionally hunted in small numbers. Finally, his wife realized what he was doing and set fire to the tree and killed her husband and the bats [54]. A little later the same bat was caught by another weasel and begged for mercy. However, the association of bats with evil still persists in some parts of the world. Decapitating bat demons appears in various myths in Amazonia and to the south in northern Argentina. The bat said, Well look at me. 15 Interesting Myths And Legends In African Mythology 1. A long time ago, on the opposite side of the earth, the Aztec term for a bat was apparently quimichpapalotl, which means butterfly mouse. The Tzotzil Maya lived, and continue to live to this day, on the plateau of Chiapas in southern Mexico. 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. Obviously, these bats were not the only animalsor even the only batsto use these now destroyed habitats. They live in unusual places. 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 Stokers 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]. WebBat facts! People often perceive bats as anomalous or ambiguous creatures, different from more normal animals. In the sandstone caves of Northern Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland, there are numerous depictions of flying foxes, some dating back tens of thousands of years. Just over one-third of the respondents (36%) did not see any benefits of bats to humans. Aboriginal peoples, however, were describing them long before this. Do they really deserve this sinister reputation, or do they play a more important role in the world than feeding the dark human fascination for the spooky and the supernatural? In shamanism, the bat as well as being a symbol of death and rebirth is able to guide people through the dark times of their lives. 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]. Even worse have been the vandalism and wanton destruction of bats and their habitat in North America. In Jamaica, the bat and the owl were very important symbols in Taino mythology and death. WebBat (goddess) Read Bat became the emblem on a sistrum, related to Hathor and which appears on the top of columns of her main temple of Denderah This painted terracotta Naqada figure of a woman is interpreted as representing Bat, c. 35003400 B.C. In some versions of the myth, the old mice would climb to the top of a tall tree, and when they reached the highest branches, their tails would detach and grow into wings. The study estimated that in the karstic Mahafaly Plateau some 50100 caves are exploited for bats and that between 70,000 and 140,000 Microchiroptera bats may be collected annually in the region. The apparent liminality of bats is also reflected in a legend from the Kanarese of India in which bats were originally a type of unhappy bird. The underworld is often associated with the dead but it is perhaps the association with vampires that is the most sinister aspect of bats. The Navajo people thought that bats were able to fly between different worlds and act as a bridge between the supernatural and the natural. In Africa, bats were credited with high intelligence. Sometimes bats are husbands as in a Mataco lore from Argentina. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode. 7. 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. That makes them the second most common group of mammals, after rodents. A detailed list of all the African gods and goddesses wuld be endless, but these twelve from the Orisha Pantheon are a good placde to start. Pomo Indians of California have a myth that a bat could chew and swallow a large piece of obsidian and then vomit large numbers of excellent arrowheads. On the other hand, the Tupinamba people believed that the planet would be eaten by a bat at the end of time. Vampire bats were not discovered until the 16th century in Central and South America. These creatures, or more like monsters, were said to be able to transform themselves into bats at will and would fly around looking for victims to drink their blood. dragon, in the mythologies, legends, and folktales of various cultures, a large lizard- or serpent-like creature, conceived in some traditions as evil and in others as beneficent. The flying fox obtained his wings when he borrowed them from the rat and refused to return them. Many paintings from western Europe in the middle ages depict the devil with bat wings. We still are. Because not enough leather remained to fashion another bat, the birds then stretched the skin between the fore and hind limbs of the other creature, making the first flying squirrel. Nevertheless, it is still a strongly sinister characteristic linking them closely to vampirism. The prominent leaf nose on the snout of this bat strongly suggests an arrowhead. considers bat as harm meaning that it is forbidden as food. 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). This North American bat-like 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]. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/legalcode. [bio]Gary F. McCracken is a professor in the Department of Zoology and the Graduate Programs in Ecology and Ethology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This is because people thought that bats were associated with witches and black magic. They believed bats to be able to cross into and out of the unseen realms at will, making them spiritual guides. In Africa, house bats occur in distinct colors and sizes, but they are usually hard to identify. In this article, we will be taking a deep dive into the world of bats in mythology, folklore, and superstition. Most often, they are seen only at night. In several other folktales, bats are banished into the night either as a result of some treachery or, as in the case of the Kanarese, because of embarrassment resulting from ill-advised behavior. It was called Boman, and it was able to turn into a stone or a snake at will. Home > More than 1,200 species are currently recognized, and many are enormously abundant. The lack of feathers, presence of teeth, and activity at night are rooted in basic biology and natural history. 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 bats wing is said to sharpen ones memory [30]. Theyre passive components, not active agents of change. Bats feature in many myths, legends and folklore from diverse cultures around the world, and are often associated with darkness, death and the supernatural. 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]. Shockingly, US news media recently reported shortages of Halloween decorationsplastic bats among them, doubtlessdue to the world supply crunch [63]. 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]. I am a bat ecologist with an interest in how people, culture and beliefs bonds or ties with bats. First he filled a large pot with warm water which he told his friend was boiling. An irrational fear of batsChiroptophobiaencompasses negative perceptions of bats as disease vectors, pests, or harmful creatures associated with devils and witchcraft, which represents an important barrier to bat conservation globally [27]. Folklore from Fiji, in the South Pacific, tells us that flying foxes originated when a rat stole the wings of a heron, while another Fijian tale relates that it was the rat that first had wings while flying foxes walked on four legs. Bats are also used as allegories to denote romantic or parental love in the poetry of Tamil Sangam literature in India [27, 28, 29]. They also don't share behavior with rodents. Bats can be found practically everywhere on the planet, including most parts of the United States. The Rompo is a common South African mythical creatures believed to exist. In Europe, there are also myths about bats in the house. 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]. In China, the bat is a symbol of happiness and good luck and its image is found in art and crafts expressing this. Emiong knew he was in trouble and flew off into the bush. In fact they are mammals of the scientific order Chiroptera, meaning hand wing in ancient Greek, because their forelimbs have become adapted to be wings. He has studied bats for many years and is author of the entry on bats in The Encyclopedia of American Folklore and Superstition. There are more than 1,300 bat species! Since the fourteenth century, Chinese culture has associated bats with good luck and blessings [33]. Our habit of sharing their ancestral living quarters would inevitably have brought bats to our attention from before the dawn of history. 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. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a5fde012108c6f81a46adcd8fa31b17e" );document.getElementById("ebd2ec4c6f").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Gordon is an ecologist with two degrees from Exeter University. The Pomo Indians of California had a superstition that bats could devour volcanic rock and then spew out ready-made arrowheads. The remaining cultures had combinations of positive, neutral, and negative values. Bat hunting is illegal, but hunters readily admitted to having hunted bats and even directed the research people to other hunters. We will be exploring how different cultures view these creatures and what stories have been told about them throughout the years. Photo credit: Masteraah. Over half of the students (57%) did not know anybody in their neighborhood who would hunt bats. This suggests that the Asia-Pacific region and its cultures contain far more positive associations with bats than most European or American societies and, as such, offer promising examples and opportunities to promote human-bat coexistence. In southwest Asia, bat folklore has been documented between Iran, India, and Myanmar [25, 26, 27]. They belong to the Order Chiroptera. Photo credit: Public domain creative commonsWikimedia. 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. I am a mouse, not a bird! The weasel looked at the bat and agreed it was a mouse and released it. Our team is growing all the time, so were always on the lookout for smart people who want to help us reshape the world of scientific publishing. This allowed the borders to be crossed and the dead and the spirits of the underworld return to visit earth. Men hunt and consume bats more often than women who have fears that consuming bat meat would give them strange or deformed children. In England, they also say that when someone is a little insane, they have bats in the belfry. However, the path to protection has been a rocky one for the Flying Foxes. Bats are largely considered to be tricksters in African folklore and mythology. In shamanism, the bat as well as being a symbol of death and rebirth is able Bats are found almost everywhere on Earth! Here are just a few: If a bat flies into your house, look out for bedbugs. The Greek philosopher Chaerephon was called the bat, because he, like the animal, did not appear by day but instead hid and philosophized. Their well-known agility in flight would make a bat formidable in a ball game against a bear and turtle. WebWhen seen as human souls, bats are often imagined as souls of the dead, particularly souls of the damned, or those that are not yet at peace. This persecution has been quite intense and has had negative effects on the whole environment. Oh - and he wrote this website. People in Vanuatu consider Pacific Flying Fox Pteropus tonganus as their ancestor and claim to be able to communicate with them [46].