Explore with Steve Backshall: Halloween critters

Forget about things that go bump in the night, Steve Backshall separates fact from fiction and shows there's nothing scary about our native bats and owls.

As you know, I’m no stranger to scary situations. Spiders and snakes, rats and sharks – I’ve met them all. There are plenty of spooky and strange things tied in with Halloween. In real life, some of them are not spooky at all, but they can be stranger than we could ever imagine...

Bat out of hell?

Look at a bat’s little furry face and cute, black button eyes, and it’s hard to imagine how anyone could be scared of them (unless they were a moth, that is!). It’s possible bats became linked with Halloween because people thought they sucked blood. Three out of 1,300 bat species are vampires and do drink mammal blood, but they all live in South America.

Here in the UK, all our bats are in hibernation during autumn and winter, tucked away in a cave, tunnel or tree hole. And here’s the incredible thing. While your heart beats about 90 times a minute, a flying bat’s heart beats up to 1,000 times a minute. But when hibernating, it drops to about 25 beats a minute. And the bat’s temperature falls to not much above the chilly spot where it hangs out. Brrr! The bat practically shuts down – that’s a great way to survive the winter when there’s no insects to eat.

What goes ‘tzeep’ in the night?

Go out on a still October night and listen for strange calls in the dark. Is it a ghost or an alien? No, it’s a bird. The high ‘tzeep’ calls you hear are made by redwings, members of the thrush family. They’re migrating here from colder countries in Europe. They fly at night, partly because it’s usually less windy, and also because there are no dangerous birds of prey around.

Hoo are you calling a twit?

Tawny owls in woods are at their noisiest around Halloween, but it’s nothing to do with spooks and spirits. They’re busy defending their territories – and once one starts calling, others all around join in. One owl might be hooting – ‘hoo-hoo’ at another, as if to say ‘Hey you, get outta my tree’. Sometimes pairs will call to each other in the dark. Often the male calls ‘hoo’ and the female answers with a high ‘too-wit’. To us, it sounds like ‘too-wit, too-whoo’.