Rotorua's "Batman" is more like the Joker today as he laughs
about his close encounter with hundreds of bats in the wee
hours of the morning.
Bob Dowling was walking home from the pub about 3am with his
mate Chris Harris, who was visiting from Invercargill, when
he heard strange noises coming from some trees on Amohia
Street.
"We saw all these funny looking birds, at least that's what
we thought they were -- and then one of them dropped out of
the tree on me and landed on my back, which gave me a fair
bit of a fright.
"It clawed me a bit and then flew away," he told NZPA.
The 21-year-old then climbed the tree to take a closer look
and hundreds of bats all flew to another tree.
But unlike DC's comic hero Batman, Mr Dowling and his boy
wonder Mr Harris did not charge off to fight crime in the
city's underworld -- rather they jumped in a taxi to beat a
hasty retreat.
The bat did not leave a mark on Mr Dowling and he was pretty
sure he would not have to visit the doctor for a rabies shot.
When he woke later this morning he wondered if he had
imagined the whole incident.
"But my mate confirmed to me it all happened.
"We're having a bit of a laugh about the whole thing. The
boys have been taking the mickey out of me all day.
"They're calling me Batman." Mr Dowling's saviour, taxi
driver Ngaia Monaham, said she didn't believe their tale at
first, but then saw the winged creatures for herself.
After dropping the men at their destinations, Ms Monaham and
a colleague returned to Amohia Street and watched the
nocturnal animals for about two hours.
She said hundreds of them were flying between three trees.
"It was eerie, but it was exciting," she said.
The Rotorua born and bred taxi driver said she had never
known of bats roosting in the area.
Department of Conservation project manager for the Rotorua
Lakes area office, Peter Corson, also said they did not know
of any bats in the central city area -- with the closest
known ones about 20km out of the city.
"And certainly I've never heard of bats in New Zealand
attacking people." Bats had an incredible ability to sense
objects, even in the darkest of areas, and usually avoided
them, he said.
New Zealand has two species of bats, the short-tail and the
long tail, and both prefer big old forests areas to live in.
Neither species was known to have a taste for human flesh and
the nearest vampire bats to Rotorua could be found in South
America, Mr Corson said.
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