South West of Cabin 8-Myths and Facts
True or False?-All bats suck blood
A. True
B. False
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Answer: False! Okay, we’ve all heard of Count Dracula, and the ever famous vampire bat. But, that definitely doesn’t mean that all bats drink blood. In fact, only 3 bat species in the world drink blood, and none of them live here in Florida. The vampire bat was actually named after the myth, rather than the other way around, and lives in Central and South America.
Even so, vampire bats, and other blood drinking bats avoid humans. We don’t taste good to them! So there’s definitely no reason to fear!
Image 2: Vampire Bat
There are a lot of myths about bats, here are a couple more:
Bats will fly in your hair.
No, bats will not fly in your hair. Not only do bats avoid people, they also have a form of navigation called echolocation. Echolocation is when they use sound waves to detect objects, allowing them to find their way even in complete darkness. Echolocation is very precise, meaning that there is no way that a bat will crash into you!
Bats are flying mice.
Mice and bats are actually not related, with bats belonging to their own order of mammals: Chiroptera. In fact, bats are more closely related to humans and primates than they are to mice.
Directions:
Leave Bat House 2 and head north and slightly west to Bat House 3. It hangs on a Slash pine right near the path to the bridge on the north side of Scout Pond. There is another bat house a tree over with a hole in it, feel free to take a look at that one too after you finish up at Bat House 3.