Megabat is based on a real kind of fruit bat (or megabat) called the lesser short-nosed fruit bat. These bats are tiny, weighing between 21 and 32 grams—which is about as heavy as an AA battery, or a mouse—and live in South and Southeast Asia and Indonesia (Borneo), usually in rainforests, near gardens, near vegetation or on beaches.
Of course, even though Megabat is based on a real kind of bat, he’s also made up. I don’t need to tell you that actual bats can’t talk…not even in the funny way that Megabat talks! But it might be worth mentioning that bats don’t make good pets, either.
Bats are amazing creatures and an important part of our ecosystem. North-American bats eat insects, and they’re rarely dangerous to humans. So if you see a bat in the wild it’s okay to observe it from a distance, but don’t try to touch it or trap it!
The bat boxes that Fiona and Vijay put up are real—many people put bat boxes on their property, and they really do hold hundreds of bats! Bats keep mosquitoes and other pests away, and having a bat box gives bats a safe place to roost—instead of attics, barns and camp cabin ceilings!