Matt Struebig and I want to share with you the strange newspaper articles from Java about an orange bat stealing money from people’s houses. This is a new for me, and obviously a very unhelpful perception for bat conservation (especially if you read the final line of the article).
You can read the Indonesian version here. Here is the translation:
“Wednesday, 25 May 2011
SITUBONDO – A bat has been caught by local people in Situbondo, East Java. They believe this unique bat likes to steal money.
The orange colour from this night creature makes its different compared to other common bats.
The bat was caught by Untung (45), Landangan Village, Subdistrict Kapongan, in his bedroom. According to Untung the bat came to his house and slipped away really fast. Untung believes the bat to be a fictional creature. From that time, he put it into a jar so it could not escape.
He added, since last month, many villagers had lost their money despite hiding it inside their room. This also likely happened to Untung, Before they knew their money had disappeared, villagers said they saw bats flying into the house.
It is not the first time bats got into Untung’s house. His own money, Rp 300,000, also disappeared 3 days ago although it was kept inside a cupboard.
Ernawati, Untung’s neighbour, also had the same experiences a week ago. The money she lost amounted to 2 million rupiah.
From the sequence of events on Untung, Erna, and other neighbours, Landangan Villagers believe the bat is a fiction creature.
“This is proven after the bat has been caught, no more villagers complain they lost their money” said Untung, Wednesday (25/05/2011).
He planned to get rid of the bats into the sea although there is no real proof the bat is the suspect. ”
As an aside, if you check out the images in used by the news sites, one bat is Tadarida brasiliensis (the Mexican Free-tailed Bat) and the other Desmodus rotundas (Common Vampire Bat) both from Central and South America!!
