People Thought This Animal Was A Myth

[@BizarreBeasts]

Use code BIZARREBEASTS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box plus 20% off your next month at bit.ly/4aEsdno !

[@thomgizziz]

Whaaaat? KZbinrs, especially popular ones that seem to be about making money, don't get the facts right really really often? I'm shocked, shocked I say, shocked.

[@takenname8053]

Hank really hating on a bat just trying its best. lol

[@camsy83]

Right?? Why do down on the bat sounds Hank? I think they sound pretty cool 😊

[@askthebubble28]

Yeah Hanks being rude

[@Catlily5]

Beauty is also in the ear of the beholder.

[@Pearls_Have_Eyes]

bat gave him cancer /s

[@samandom8772]

Hank defending the mola mola for being weird but hating on this bat for doing the same thing. XD

[@lindareed8265]

"Lekking is uncommon in mammals." Every nightclub I've ever been to begs to differ.

[@metal_pipe9764]

Still uncommon in mammal species

[@lusionary6991]

I know this is a joke, but even if every single human on Earth engaged in lekking, it would still be uncommon in mammals.

[@AthAthanasius]

05:12 - Hank! These bats don't sound awful at all! I was expecting something really screeching, or otherwise sounding like screaming. That's just adorable!

[@TheDocfri]

Agreed!

[@Thoran666]

Imagine 100 of them near you when you try to sleep.

[@KBRoller]

@@Thoran666 Look, I've got frogs around my neighborhood that are apparently nocturnal, so like 6 months out of the year I have to hear *them* all night long. I'm used to it, and would rather have a cute bat making noise instead 😂

[@dh8203]

They sound a bit like a bird, and not bad at all compared to a lot of animal calls.

[@alyssaoconnor]

They sound like a mix of the crickets and frogs that live near me, I agree not a bad sound at all.

[@orionhardy]

They don't sound that bad. I've definitely heard worse at a karaoke night.

[@joshsatterwhite1571]

Ah, karaoke bars... the human Lek.

[@MrT_Rex]

Agree

[@drewharrison6433]

Scary oke... Lol

[@RedstonerD]

they don't sound bad, they sound bat ✨

[@toryumau6798]

@@RedstonerD … To be fair, it takes talent to hit that high screech. >)X^D

[@takatacheroki2624]

"Sounds awful too" Nah, it just sounds like a weird duck call lol

[@nyanuwu4209]

Ducks are a bit rapey. Their calls are surely ominous.

[@Carewolf]

Like the call of a Disco Duck.

[@solidman8360]

2:36 this is a misconception; bat wings are actually more efficient than feathered wings (with the main advantage of feathers being protection). Not only are bats very manoeuvrable and efficient fliers, but the worlds fastest flying animal is the mexican free-tailed bat. (The peregrine falcon is only the fastest animal when including speeds reached by diving, which in my opinion is cheating)

[@Eloraurora]

Isn't insulation also a major feather advantage? Hence the lack of bat equivalents to snowy owls or ptarmigans.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

How is diving cheating? 😡Don't you take ma boi Peregrine's title away from him! 😤

[@RedstonerD]

​@@ArawnOfAnnwn controlled falling does not equal flying! the fastest human skydiver fell twice the maximum speed your bird can reach, and I wouldn't call that flying.

[@George_M_]

Fully living wings on bats and the flying reptiles of old are vulnerable to damage and require a lot more brain power to use and articulate correctly. Bird wings have evolved past a lot of the day to day problems even if their direct physical force to use is higher.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@RedstonerD If controlled falling isn't flying, then gliders don't fly. 😤Hell a lot of planes don't really fly either, neither does the space shuttle.

[@drakkondarkspell]

So they're the elephant seals of the bat world.

[@nyanuwu4209]

The saiga antelope of the bat world.

[@Echo81Rumple83]

my thoughts exactly! and i HATE those things, but these bats are rather cute :3

[@NewMessage]

Dude found his look in 15th century demonology spellbooks.

[@garshtoshteles]

Thought you meant Hank for a sec

[@DistrarSubvoyikar]

That reminds me of the song called Belfagor Sigla

[@morsemurraidh1314]

Were we _not_ referring to Hank??

[@Ector_902]

Your profile pic made me click on this comment so that 1 can go away lol

[@aelwynwitch9460]

As an occultist the braying donkey laughter I made at your comment woke up my cat.

[@joshuasims5421]

Fun fact, the word 'Lek' is from the Swedish word 'lek' meaning 'play', and is thus cognate with the word Lego (from Danish leg godt = play well!)

[@aelwynwitch9460]

That's so cool!

[@thatoctahedronfan8othercha37]

Ah! The real life Jersey Devil is finally here!!!! Love the Hammerheaded Bats! That little face makes me so, SO happy. They are so cute! Also to me, the noise is quite cute! Sounds like he's honking a little toy trumpet!

[@FellowLee]

+

[@1TakoyakiStore]

I like calling them Flying Honk Hounds.

[@ernestlam5632]

I was going to say something similar because they really do kind of match the description of the Jersey devil.

[@ambertypereiraty3627]

😂 I agree 💯 they are SO CUTE!!! 🥰🥰🥰 And there are MUCH WORSE nocturnal noises... imagine the HELL some people in Australia and New Zealand have to listen to when there's either a mated penguin pair catching up after separation from the previous mating season(NZ), or a koala 🐨 (marsupials in general seem to be VERY TONE DEAF) Down Under making a ruckus....? 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🙉🙉🙉🙉🙉

[@HaleyOnTheRocks]

@@1TakoyakiStoreI must say this is a great name for them 😅

[@YoungMule]

Love this series. Growing up all facts were given to us as if they were immutable, I love this practice of showing how info changes overtime it gives the average person more context to how science operates. Hopefully the next generation has less misconceptions

[@wildflower1397]

The split nose is because fruit juice and gravity don't play well together up your nose. When a bat hangs upside down to feed on fruit, juice drips down towards the tip of their nose. The "split nose" is a channel between the nostrils for it to flow down so that it doesn't go up their nose. Some fruit bats are tube-nosed for the same reason, with adorable little Shrek faces. ❤

[@garrgravarr]

Awesome factoid, thank you

[@PhlegmaticAbsentee]

Hammerheaded Bats evolved to make dubstep beats.

[@codyrhodes1344]

Would that be an example of convergent evolution between humans and hammerhead bats?

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

That was awesome!

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@codyrhodes1344 More like between hammerhead bats and hammerhead sharks. 'Cept hammerhead sharks didn't evolve their shape for this reason afaik, so I guess not. Or maybe they did? I think the jury is still out on that one...

[@codyrhodes1344]

@@ArawnOfAnnwn Nah, hammerhead sharks evolved to be dancers, their wide head let's them pick up all the frequencies and rythms, both acoustic and electro. Hammerhead bats are the apex musicians of their clade. Other primates, like the gibbon, can sing, but only us humans can make sick wub-de-wub beats.

[@codyrhodes1344]

@@ArawnOfAnnwn Look at how graceful hammerhead sharks move, they're on a totally different vibe than any us mammals could reach.

[@bla19234]

With a face only a nocturnal species could love. Damn, Hank spittin fire.

[@yueli92]

All bats are highly intelligent. Some may not have the most appealing looks, but they're all fascinating creatures.

[@brettwood1351]

Still, come on guys, you are totally letting skin membrane flight down, Pterasaurs are spinning in their fossil beds at how small you've stayed!

[@victoriaeads6126]

That schnoz is just adorable. It's so OTT that it's come out the other side into squishable territory 😂❤ 🦇

[@ColonelBummleigh]

Cool little guys,they look like they have bags of character. We're really lucky to have bats in our garden where I live in Scotland. Great seeing their acrobatics each evening darting around the street lamps eating insects.

[@MoonLitChild]

This is my favorite time of year to watch the sun set outside and see the bats start to come out. There's no where near as many where I live now as where I grew up (we could literally stand still in the summer in the middle of the yard and have them dive-bomb at us going after the swarms of gnats that would congregate) but it's nice to have any at all.

[@PaulG.x]

The correct classifications are: (traditional): Megachiroptera Microchiroptera (present): Yinpterochiroptera Yangochiroptera The Yinpterochiroptera (or Pteropodiformes) is a suborder of the Chiroptera, which includes taxa formerly known as megabats and five of the microbat families: Rhinopomatidae, Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, Craseonycteridae, and Megadermatidae. This suborder is primarily based on molecular genetics data. Yangochiroptera, or Vespertilioniformes, is a suborder of Chiroptera that includes most of the microbat families, except the Rhinopomatidae, Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, and Megadermatidae.

[@hollyoswald7808]

Thank you! I really like bats and they deserve their proper names.

[@soragami6247]

If there are Megabats, and there are Microbats, where are the Mediumbats?

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

They were too mid for evolution. You either become the best adapted for your environment, or don't bother playing.😎

[@KBRoller]

Medibats eventually evolved into doctorbats.

[@DominicPiscopoFigidiniHill]

Listening to the Aquabats.

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

Good thread everybody

[@TheRealNameless1]

They got drafted by the Cubs

[@ericvilas]

3:25 "looking kinda dumb" oh it's from That Time in Vlogbrothers! I remember this!

[@curiousfirely]

Ah ha ha! I'm glad someone else noticed too 😂

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

++

[@Galvamel]

I find it really interesting how much the Hammer head Bat looks like some pictures of the Jersey Devil, could that somehow be what started the myth?

[@brettwood1351]

Depends on when the current popular depiction became widespread, and who did it.

[@teleriferchnyfain]

It happened in the 1700s. Current best theory is that some hammerheads bats stowed away on ships & escaped into the pine barrens 🤗

[@brettwood1351]

@@teleriferchnyfain I can see that happening. Seeing an unfamilier animal in the dark like that, you can very easily go and think it's a monster.

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

The sound is no more horrible than many bird calls. It sounds a bit like a grey squirrel alarm call, but smoother. Granted, a few hundred of these guys competing might be a bit loud. As for ugly, well that's in the eye of the beholder. If I were a female of this species, I might find a huge nose extremely handsome! I'm glad you got away from this pattern of applying our human value judgments to animals later in your series. Animals are the way evolution shaped them. We should admire the diversity, and not intrude our biased human opinions on their appearance and way of life.

[@luminousparadox7529]

That bat looks like how I feel on a Thursday morning after working all week and there still being week ahead 😂😂

[@jessejorgensen3931]

That’s no bat! That’s the Jersey Devil!

[@ronchappel4812]

When my friend married a few years back they actually mentioned bats in their wedding vows. She liked caring for injured bats while he wanted nothing to do with them😅

[@phutureproof]

regardless of how long has passed why did your friend marry a few bats?

[@philip5513]

Look at that little wolf face it looks like it would weigh it down in flight lol

[@DeoxTew]

1:54 so damn ROUND, why is it so ROUND? I love it! 😭😭

[@KBRoller]

It's a fluffbat! 🥰

[@MoonLitChild]

If a round bird is a borb does that make a round bat a baorb? orbt?

[@andyrantshumanphilosopher7571]

Crediting snopes with getting stories straight is like crediting a candle with not melting when its lit.

[@existenceisillusion6528]

Sooo....there's a bat species that gets turned on by the sound of dial-up?

[@lindareed8265]

Someone PLEASE sample that bat mating call and use it in a song! They've got beats!

[@ChroniclogicalJeff]

So I guess it goes without saying that Batman is a... is the Megabat.

[@UtubeH8tr]

Where's my pot of gold leprechaun?

[@Eloraurora]

The funny thing is, most of the bats he's depicted with are microbats. Both because they're what you'd find in -New York- Gotham, and because they're weirder/scarier-looking.

[@VincentTorneyPlus]

No Jeff. No. We are NOT doing This. Not now. (Maybe later, on some different Bat-Channel at some different Bat-Time.... 🤔...But in the meantime may I interest you in some delicious #TRUMP2024🇺🇸? 😏... C'MON Jeffy, #OrangeYouCurious?)

[@RunD.Ones1s]

Ummm ackkkshuaally the species he’s depicted as mimicking are microbats 🤓

[@Eloraurora]

@@RunD.Ones1s You have a very low 'ackshually' bar; I didn't even pull a list of species from Wikipedia. Please, raise your standards for assigning nerd credit, I feel like I haven't worked hard enough to deserve it in this instance.

[@ambergris5705]

I also thought that the whole "feathers are better at flying" thing wasn't really true? There's some slow mo research of bats flying that show them catching an insect with one wing, grabbing it and bringing it to their mouth while still flying with just the other wing... Something I have never heard a bird do. Some bats also migrate, though not as far as some birds, but it's still mightily impressive for their size. But also, if we talk about the whole size thing, the biggest bird ever does not hold a candle to the gigantic Quetzalcoatlus (the size of a giraffe, remember!?), who used to have skinned wings, and no feathers. At the end of the day, between feathers, skinned wings or membraned wings like insects, I am not sure one is definitely better, they're just... Different.

[@shawnferguson5681]

“A face that only a nocturnal species could love”... ha ha ha

[@samhuni8271]

Hank hates the sound, I feel like making music out of it 😅

[@morsemurraidh1314]

_Could've named it the_ "Flower Snooted Bat," _and made as much sense._

[@anactualprayingmantis5054]

Oh, my, goodness. Hammerheaded bats are so freaking cute. I love them

[@ivytarablair]

oh nooo I went and looked at the season 0 pins and aaaaaagh - I remember Hank's glee and amazement and '...whaaaat??' of EACH of these videos from the time! that's how memorable they were in the moment - I still look at each pin and can vividly recall Hank's joy :D NOW need to get the pin set tho! again thank you so much for updating these season 0 videos rather than replacing them - they are dear to me in their originals and this is the best of both worlds for sure

[@deanfirnatine7814]

That bat is a dead ringer for the legendary Jersey Devil or at least drawings witnesses drew, granted much smaller, but as far as looks from the waist up spot on.

[@kyokoyumi]

"...so they can sound terrible too" Poor boy out here beatboxing and Hank is just dissing on him. At least he's in tune...

[@MrLince-hr4of]

the hammerhead bat looks extrem cute if you compare it with this 5:21 🤣🤣🤣

[@korrafey1044]

I genuinely believe a lost one of these is the source of the jersey devil origin

[@GringatTheRepugnant]

I found out about another lek-breeder recently! The ghost moth (Hepialus humuli) which lek only in about a half hour window a few times around the summer solstice in Europe. The males congregate around a patch of flowers and make these beautiful ghostly looking hovering dances over them. Having seen them in person lately I was enthralled just watching them. It was nearly 11pm and the sky was still bright enough to see by after all! They belong to the family Hepalidae which are categorised as "deaf moths". Their lineage lacks the ability to hear ultrasonic frequencies, including those made by predatory bats. Other moths are able to hear them and get away. So it's theorised that the lekking display is both about showing off fitness even when you might get blindsided by a predator on the wing, but also the specific time and pattern of the lekking dance is just when the light levels are too low for birds and too bright for bats.

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

That's super cool! And definitely also how fairy tales get made

[@BoneWalker]

A hammerhead bat sits down at a bar. The bartender asks, "Why the long face?"

[@crimsonraen]

Thanks for the video, and bringing this series back!

[@trentjohnson5713]

"Just....Lek. Drop the 'The'"

[@unclescar5616]

New bar name idea: The Lek👍🏽

[@readjordan2257]

I must be too bummed from the Election because i didnt see the word "Megabat" i thought i saw "Magabat" and you know, theres so many things wrong with whatever is going on with that line of thought. Especially since after 2020.

[@AuliaAF]

It's kind of amazing how they can be so big but so light. I've ever taken photos with one megabat the size of a monkey, but I never imagined they would be that light!

[@jeffreycooke9613]

It sounds like how an original Nintendo entertainment system would create a cicada sound

[@lydianoack4552]

Dream pet for any Goth, and they don't sound all that bad.

[@spoolofyarn6682]

As for the sound of the Hammerhead Bat, I can prove that there are vastly worse sounds than that honking. Just look up what a koala sounds like.

[@inkbunnybunny]

This bat isn't as weird as I was expecting and sounds really nice.

[@DataRew]

Another Fun fact that's a correction for how Hank started this video: The Snopes website was actually started as a pre-Cryptid debunking and mythos website that eventually moved into news story evaluation. My source is Oh No Ross and Carrie's episode, "Ross Meets David Mikkelson: Snopes Edition" where Ross interviews the creator of Snopes, David Mikkelson, where he goes on about this.

[@fellowhuman8830]

5:14 i can see cosmo sheldrake making a SICK song with this little goober

[@gussnarp]

I read the text on the thumbnail as "This is a megabit" and I was sooooo confused.

[@someoneelse2106]

Check out the Ryukyu flying fox. It's a megabat that I've personally encountered and it's huge. They are found in the island chain of Okinawa Japan. I was new to crewing the F-15 in Okinawa and on my first flight inspection, there was one of these big guys hanging upside down on the landing gear of the jet. It was asleep when I encountered it and I wound up waking it up by gently poking it with a wrench. It wakes up, screeches at me, takes a leak on the gear, and then flies away. I couldn't believe it. This one makes the hammer headed bat look small by comparison.

[@LaineyBug2020]

In my head the mega bat has a voice like Miss Piggy.

[@TheLusus]

From where is the name of the mating behavior originate from? "Lek" is play (verb) or game.

[@erikm8372]

Megabats are cute. Fruit bats. The small, scary, sharp-teeth ones freak me out. Apparently bats' closest relations are primates and rodents, more than anything. But closer to the primate side… kind of makes sense. And that’s crazy about the noises… I had always thought hammerhead bats, among different bat species, had those faces based on their primary food source… as in they target specific flowers or fruits, and their faces evolved a specific form to enable the pollinating and consumption of said fruits/flowers. I think there’s a diagram somewhere of different South American bats with crazy scary faces, next to each respective orchid they favor. And their faces fit like a puzzle into the flowers!

[@dmax9946]

"A face only a nocturnal species could love" - Hank Greene Would have been an amazing insult in highschool

[@reptilez13]

Flying foxes are some of my favorite animals. Theres a woman on YT who rescues flying foxes and i think some other giant fruit bats. The hammer-headed bat is pretty wild lookin!

[@Where_is_Waldo]

I live in southern Alberta and, as a kid, I once found a dead bat that had a skull comparable in size to that of a small adult housecat. It had large wings and a relatively large body for a bat, I didn't know bats that big lived in the area. I wonder what kind of bat that was. Edit: I've now done some very quick googling and found that the largest bat natural to Canada apparently weighs only 35 grams so I guess this bat wasn't natural to the area. I did find it in someone's back yard just off the alley and it did look like it had just been plopped down where it was and dried out and started to decay there. I think it had been someone's pet that had died.

[@lunasif]

I've got to say, that bat sound would make a wicked rave beat.

[@marshallrobinson1019]

I was expecting the bat to say, "General Kenobi..."

[@buzzsburner.8286]

HOW MANY SCIENCE CHANNELS DOES HANK HAVE?????

[@beth8775]

The Lek sounds sort of like speed dating 😂

[@retro6294]

I find the sound it makes amusing and a bit silly. Like a mixture of a tambourine and bicycle horn.

[@avinotion]

That bat wing in the thumbnail looks like someone is pitching a tent.

[@thelayoffm965]

I'd have that as an alarm tone

[@skeeterinnewjersey5256]

Investigate the Florida bonneted bat. Makes this guy look like Miss America 😁 And this guy sounds much more pleasant that this summer's cicada invasion.

[@Glory2Snowstar]

I will not take such slander, this bat is a wonderful singer >:(

[@caroljo420]

I always wanted one or two of the giant fruit bats as a pet, but I don't know enough about them to properly care for one.

[@allenkeith7160]

Malabar Giant Squirrel? First time hearing of this one. Not sure if I have seen it or not before now either.

[@briseboy]

Wait! Start with bizarre bats, suddenly finish moments later with boxes of mystery meat in your mail? Flamingos lek, struting around to show off their pink. I noticed the ones here are quiet in the dusk, though, lazily sifting the mud for pink food, just like kids who want to eat one color.

[@tecumsehcristero]

What are you talking bout. That Bat is a cutie pie.

[@Skukkix23]

I'd say that is a slightly above average bat.

[@613-shadow9]

the mega bat looks a lot like descriptions of the Jersey Devil.

[@DerekCFPegritz]

Yo, that bat was kicking out some serious Aphex-Twin-circa-the-Ventolin-EP sounds.

[@Archbishopofcheeseburger]

Idk what anyone says, bats are so darn cute and awesome and I would pet one if they weren't so darn good at carrying diseases.

[@MegabatsMicrobats]

you called?

[@jamielandis4606]

I think the bat is adorable with his big shnoz!

[@iancowan3527]

Earned my subscription, awesome work and video!

[@CybershamanX]

LOVE your multi-layered background! Oh, and BTW... SUBBED! 😎☮ EDIT: PS - I LOVE your necklace and pins, too! ☺

[@Sxcheschka]

I wonder how the term lekking got conjured in the first place.

[@jared5811]

loving the bat flair lol

[@vincentx2850]

We should have an episode on the hero shrew, arguably the weirdest mammal of all.

[@lem5689]

That side profile of the bat make it look like it was made from a Pixar movie 😭

[@KairuHakubi]

4:15, I mean, doing it as a GROUP is rare, but in general that is how every animal works. The male does a display for the female and waits to get chosen (or at least to not get fought off)

[@DJFracus]

"it's true what you said is rare, but if I change what you said, it's no longer rare" wow thanks for the insight

[@KairuHakubi]

@@DJFracus just saying, that statement could have been taken much more broadly than intended. and people are confused enough about how the sexes work, y'know?

[@Aerational]

you didn't give the bat a chance to make the beat drop

[@johnnydarling8021]

1:20 That the Skyward Sword birb. 1:30 *Megabat* sounds like it's from a video game, maybe ever Pokemon if GameFreak got lazy.

[@maxpotiontcg]

I love bats… and Hank! ❤

[@alexhoffmann9319]

She's literally me fr

[@foxlistens2759]

the idea to retcon the original videos are great!

[@Danin4985]

That’s crazy. It IS a moose on wings!

[@1TakoyakiStore]

I'm getting concerned at just how many sources Hank was to easily find the first time around that the Bizarre Beasts research crew are unable to re-find to verify. 😅

[@hughcipher66]

"Leking" is unusual for mammals? She acting like she's never been at a bar on a Friday night.

[@CybershamanX]

(5:14) I wish I could hear more of their sounds. I suspect it has something to do with the frequencies? Maybe the vibrations, if they are correct, can put the female "into the mood", so to speak? 🤷🤔

[@feralbluee]

i know about this bat - and always thought it was so cute! just look at that adorable cute face - looks like he wouldn’t hurt a fly. :) 🦇🌷🌱

[@Qingeaton]

Reached up about the 6 foot level to pluck what I thought was a dead leaf from a pawpaw tree in the orchard. Just at the last second did it register that I was about to grab a red bat. Mid Missouri.