Rashid Rasool Rabbani Ismaili & Owais Maqbool Rabbani Ismaili

In many cultures, bats have been associated with ill omens. Most recently, bats came in for lots of brickbats when it was learnt that the deadly COVID-19 was due to a virus that was bat-borne. 

Bats have spawned a large number of myths around the world:
•    Building bats are thought to bring bad luck. Even William Shakespeare associated them with ghosts, curses, and spells in “Macbeth”.
•    Bats are said to feed on human blood, and a bat bite could turn us into vampires.
•    Bats are considered "unclean" in European society. 
•    In southern Nigeria, bats are linked with sorcery.
•    Large, human-eating bats are found in Hawaiian legends, and there is even a legend of an eight-eyed bat.

There is even a term for the irrational fear of bats — Chiroptophobia. All these myths and irrational fears are a significant impediment to bat conservation worldwide.

However, the world over, bats find unusual uses. In Bolivia, live bats are sold for therapeutic purposes. Epilepsy is thought to be treated by drinking the blood of bats. According to a 2010 survey, 3,000 bats were sold in four Bolivian cities' markets each month. Seba's short-tailed bats, mouse-eared bats, and common vampire bats are among the species on sale at these markets. Night blindness is said to be treated with bat excrement (guano) in traditional Chinese medicine.

The Indian flying fox is thought to have numerous medicinal properties. Its fat, according to some, is a treatment for rheumatism. To relieve asthma and chest pain, tribes in India's Attappadi region consume the fried flesh of the Indian flying fox. Treatments for "fever with shivering" are prepared with hair from Indian flying foxes by healers of the Kanda Tribe of Bangladesh.

Oceania, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, and West and Central Africa are just a few of the places where bats are eaten for their meat…read more on NOPR