I received an email with a list of whacky “facts”, one of which was: “Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!” I replied to all that I thought this was hooey. However, when I searched the web for someone who has debunked this myth, I only found the same assertion repeated over and over - generally on lists of whacky facts.
We have all seen video of millions of bats exiting a cave at dusk, and it seems to me they fly every which way - so I continue to say: “Hooey!”
Can someone point me to a respectable source that either backs me up or shoots me down?
This is most likely one of those dopey factoids that is difficult to shoot down because it’s so dopey scientists don’t even bother to make definite statements about it.
If you really want to track it down, I would suggest sending an e-mail to batinfo@batcon.org, or alternatively to BCI’s Science Officer, listed on the Staff page.
It’s true of, say, Carlsbad Caverns… Because the cave itself corkscrews to the left as you climb out of it… I’m reasonably sure that, given a cave with a right-hand twist, any bats flying out of it would veer that way.
(“Deprived of that freedom, for which we must fight:
to veer to the left or to veer to the right.”
Flanders & Swann)
No scientific proof, just anecdotal. I grew up near an old, old building, which housed a very healthy and thriving bat colony. Every evening right around sunset bats would stream out of the eaves of this building from a couple of locations. And when I say stream, I mean stream, it was a veritable river of bats coming out. Since this was a in a rather small town, with very little do for entertainment, a favorite pastime in our neighborhood would be to stand directly in front of these exit points, and let the bats rush around us. Once in a while we’d get hit, but for the most part the bats avoided us. From that position it was clear to me that these bats were exiting in a fan pattern, left, right and center, with occasional spurts up or down.
It’s quite beautiful to see, I recommend it as a thing for all to watch before they die. Now its been some years, but I don’t recall Cloud Croft bats veering any particular war. Just a grand rush with the beating of wings and high pitched noises. Call me crazy but I strictly recall them veering right into the nights harvest!
