Athol
In 1927, zoologist Ernst Bartels was in his home near the
Tjidjenkol River in Java when he heard a strange cry louder than the other night sounds, a
cry like "a-hool." Bartels heard the sound twice more before the origin of the
cries moved off into the night. Bartels soon remembered a local legend of the ahool
or athol, a type of huge bat reputed to live in the area.
Locals described the bat as the size of a small child, with an 11-12 foot wingspan. The
Athol was supposedly covered in grayish fur and had a face similar to that of a monkey or
a man. At times, it was seen sitting on the forest floor, with its wings folded beside it;
it was also reputed to have feet which pointed backwards. During the day (like all bats,
it was nocturnal), the Athol's refuge was supposedly a cave somewhere near a waterfall,
although at night it would fly over the river's surface in search of fish.
Bartels held the theory that the Athol was some species of owl, a notion which the natives
adamantly denied. In the July 1966 issue of Fate, Bartels
described his encounter with the help of nature writer Ivan T. Sanderson, who himself had
encountered a similar creature, called olitiau, in Africa.
As to the identification of the Athol, it seems to be a huge representative of the
"micro-bats" (the bats with which most people are familiar; small, harmless
animals such as brown bats and pipistrelles), as opposed to a fruit bat of some sort. The
most notable feature of the Athol which corresponds with a "micro-bat" is the
face, which, in contrast to the dog or horselike head of fruit bats, is flat. Other
factors support this identification, as well: most notably the bat's habit of folding its
wings at its side when hanging upside down from a tree (fruit bats wrap their wings around
their bodies).
Although most of the time, "micro-bats" are seen on all fours when grounded,
they are capable of being nearly bipedal for brief periods of time. The
backwards-pointing feet of the bat also support this identification.
SHUKER, Dr. Karl P.N.
1994 A Belfry of Crypto-bats.
Fortean Studies 1, pp. 235-245.