Quote:
chef_jmr said:
I think bats are blind ("Blind as a Bat"). They "see" by sonar... Maybe they were attracted to the sweet sound of your P-car... PSE perhaps?
Actually, not all bats are "blind," and the common North American bat, the "little brown bat" that we see darting around our backyards at dusk (and most likely the bats seen around Xtractor's 997),
Myotis lucifugus , CAN see, however, you are correct that it uses "sonar" to "see" its prey: One bat can via echolocation "clicks" identify its meal, those little guys actually chow up to 500 mosquitoes per hour!
They also use "warning honks" when feeding and roosting with other bats, to avoid crashing into one another (much like us drivers in our Porsche's
).
Contrary to myth, bats are not aggressive rodents, rather they are the only flying mammal (the "flying squirrel" merely glides, but doesn't fly, kind of like your 997 coasting to a stop, but the bat can hit the throttle and take off
). Also MOST bats are not rabid, BUT it is best to heed the general advice and NEVER try to touch a bat just in case, and if a bat gets into your home-they occasionally roost in your attic-ASSUME it is rabid, especially if it doesn't seem to want to avoid YOU.
Most likely, the bats that Xtractor encountered in his Xenon headlights' beams were using echolocation (not the light itself) to identify the bugs that themselves were attracted to the light, and using this "sonar," were snacking on the bugs as they commonly do at night-that we usually don't see since the light is too low.
Last night I was driving home with my xenon lamps lighting my way, when over the course of about 10 minutes I experienced a wild occurance. I had about 12-15 bats actually swoop at the wind shield. Of course as this was occuring a possum decided to walk out into the middle of the street and play dead. I thought somebody was playing a sick practical joke. Now you would think this was out in the wild, it occured in Northern Westchester County, New York. I would imagine the bats were going after insects draw to the white light. I Thought I'd write to see if anybody else has had this happen to them since I've never seen this before! 
