The link between the queerness and all things spooky is so well established that it’s practically common knowledge these days, whether it’s witchcraft and the occult, horror culture, monsters and ghouls, or Halloween itself. And of course, vampires, whose bisexuality is ingrained to the point that it has become its own genre of Internet meme. Even the animals associated with Halloween have been shown to engage in all manner of moonlit bisexual shenanigans — especially bats.
Bats are some of the most unique and fascinating animals in the world. They’re not just the only mammals capable of powered flight, some bats have also been found to mate without having penetrative sex, owing to the fact that in some species, male bats have penises that are seven times longer and wider than females’ vaginas. It turns out that size does matter — and there’s such a thing as being too endowed. And, like more than 1,500 other animals in nature, bats engage in both heterosexual and homosexual behavior.
Researchers going back to the 1940s have documented same-sex behavior among at least 22 different species of bats, such as big brown bats, long-fingered bats, noctule bats, Rafinesque’s big-eared bats, fruit bats, and, naturally, vampire bats. This includes both mounting and foreplay among male-male and female-female couplings.
According to the University of Michigan’s Diversity Animal Web, when male little brown bats of North America engage in “passive phase mating” (where one bat is in a semi-hibernation state called being “torpid”), about 35% of the time they mate with other males. Down under, the grey-headed flying fox of eastern Australia, who spend most of the year in sex-segregated groups, are considered “seasonally bisexual” and engage in both sexual and affectionate same-sex behavior including hugging, licking, grooming, and face nuzzling.
These critters have an even freakier side. Indian flying foxes perform oral sex on one another “for hours on end”, including same-sex fellatio. Male Bonin flying foxes of Japan gather in large clusters and fellate one another’s erect penises. As one headline put it: “Turns out flying foxes have polyamorous bisexual orgies for hours.” Fun fact: bats can congregate in massive groups of up to 20 million. Picture the morning after that party.
Some scientists believe that because most same-sex behavior takes place outside of the mating season, when bats live with other members of their own sex, their “seasonal bisexuality” is a product of basically making due with what’s available. Other researchers theorize that certain same-sex acts, such as male bats performing oral sex on other males, may also play a role in smoothing over conflicts or keeping one another warm. Imagine that pickup line: hey baby, it’s only to keep warm.
Bats get a bad rap as nocturnal blood-suckers, disease carriers, and flying rats, though in truth they’re highly social and remarkable creatures with strange powers like echolocation, the ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field, and, of course, their oversized penises. Bats may be a staple of spooky imagery and horror tales, but what they really are is scary bi.