Something Wicked this way Flaps: Anomalous Bats and Cryptozoology

In May of last year, motorists in Washington County, Pennsylvania traveling along a major route suddenly pulled over to watch what many described as a “huge dark-colored flying creature” flying low as it passed over the cars. Prolific researcher Stan Gordon noted at his website how witnesses to the event agreed that the creature looked “more like a giant bat than a bird.”

Indeed, of all places, giant bat-like creatures are often described over America’s skies, though generally speaking, many of this country’s best known cryptozoological mystery-monsters host bat-like traits. Take for instance the membranous wings of the Northern The Jersey Devil; or perhaps most famous of all American cryptids, the Mothman of West Virginia, with its large wings and glowing red eyes that inspired the film The Mothman Prophecies. Elsewhere in the world, England’s “Owl Man”, essentially a British counterpart to America’s Mothman, is joined by an infamous “vampire” said to have haunted Highgate Cemetery in North London for several decades. Regardless, both of these mysterious European entities bear similarities to America’s most famous fluttering beast, a number of which are indeed bat-like.

In general, Bats have long been associated with strange phenomenon in almost every culture around the world. Sparring the already widely-known European notions of vampires in association with bats, one significant source for this prevailing belief that bats are somehow supernatural creatures may indeed have stemmed from ancient observation of the way bats pollinate the silk-cotton-bearing Kapok or “ceiba tree”. In addition to providing a vital source of timber used in ancient times for constructing native canoes and a variety of structures, in many locales this tree was also considered

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