Ok, this got brought up in casual conversation and it perplexed me almost as badly as turtle sex used to: how do bats poop? They’re hanging upside down, so how do they do their business without getting it all over their adorable fuzzy little persons?
Here is the answer, and here is the source:
Roosting upside down could present problems for hygiene. To relieve themselves (urinate or defecate), bats hanging upside down turn head up to minimize the chances of soiling themselves. Bats are very clean animals, spending time every day grooming.
I’ve been seeing little Chinese bats just about every time I walk around at dusk, and that more or less means that every time I go outside, I get a little good omen. They’re such elegant, efficient, graceful, fun little critters, and it makes me happy to see them (and I’m glad to know that they don’t actually poop all over themselves). Apparently China is a great place to be for bat lovers, with over one hundred species represented. I was trying to find out what species the little fluttery guys that live in my alley are, and I got lost in all the descriptions.
I also found out from a tattoo website that the Chinese word for “bat” is “fu”, which is a homonym for “luck” [not the same character, as pointed out by Nathan]. So, bats are a symbol of fortune. If you turn the bat upside down, you get a symbol for the arrival of good luck (the word for “upside down” is similar to “arrive”). Hence, bats roosting means good luck is here. And here’s a very brief article about bats in Chinese art.
And now I’m seriously considering a wu fu tattoo.
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Just a small correction Anne (please don’t think I’m being pretentious correcting your Chinese). “Fu” for luck and “Fu” for bat aren’t the same word, they just sound the same. 福 is the word for luck, and 蝠 is the word for bat. It’s kind of like how nobody like the number four, not because the chinese word for four also means death, but it sounds like death. 四 si for four and 死 si for death. Please don’t think I’m a wanker.
That pingback is some pretty intense Spam programming! They would deserve some creative spamming points… if they weren’t spamming pieces of crap.
Okay, so Nathan and I are against the wu fu tattoo–thank you, Nathan! But I do love the interest in bat poop and tidiness. Only you, Anne, only you!
Nathan: No, absolutely no pretentiousness detected - thanks for the correction. There’s a ton of pseudo- homonym games like that, right? Umbrellas (san3) and fans (shan4) are bad gifts because they sound like “fall apart” (san4), you shouldn’t split a pear with a friend (fen1 li2) because it’s like “split apart from each other”, etc.
Chris: I finally got askimet running. And yes, there was some incredibly intense spam programming happening there, but hopefully, I killed it.
Lady G: I don’t think Nathan said a word against the tattoo…
the tattoo is an awesome idea.
it’s interesting that umbrella and “fall apart” are homonyms (with different tones, since apparently the Chinese pronunciation and grammar police are on the prowl) since my umbrellas fall apart immediately after buying them here.
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