‘Unknown freak luck’: Flying bats crash into cyclist’s face, groin at Punggol park connector

The first time it happened he could've brushed it off thinking he was just unfortunate, but the second time a bat flew smack into him while he was cycling, Facebook user Feng Stan cursed his "unknown freak luck".

During his ride along the Punggol Promenade Nature Walk stretch of the North Eastern park connector on Friday night (April 9), a bat unwittingly flew into his path and crashed straight into him.

Or rather, it crashed into his groin area.

In a Facebook post uploaded on Saturday, he recounted how the bat wasn't able to fly off immediately as it was stuck between his thighs. Though it tried to free itself by thrashing its wings about, all that did was to freak him out even more.

When he was finally able to regain his senses, he unclipped his right leg from the pedal and nudged the critter away, all while cycling still.

As it turns out, it wasn't his first unfortunate encounter with the flying mammal.

His first incident happened in November 2020, when one flew directly into his face, along the very same cycling stretch.

"I [couldn't] see whether there [were] people or cyclists or obstacles in front because the bat stayed on my face!"

As his cleats were clipped to the bicycle pedal, he couldn't stop cycling. The resultant pressure from the wind pressed the bat onto his face.

"It flap flap flap flap, whacking my face with its leather wings," he recalled. "It took me a while before I had the balance to use my hands to flick the bat away."

He hoped his story would serve as a cautionary tale to other cyclists, and later uploaded a video taken at that particular stretch just to show how close to the ground the bats flew. For the time being, he's resorted to dismounting his bicycle and walking along the area instead.

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While netizens were relieved to hear that he escaped unharmed, they couldn't help but poke fun at him – and where the bat chose to land.

And considering the animal itself, jokes about him being Singapore's very own Batman were made.

AsiaOne understands that other cyclists have also crashed into flying bats along that stretch of the North Eastern park connector.

According to NParks, it is not uncommon for bats to fly close to the ground and sometimes come closer to humans while swooping towards fruits or insects near lamp posts. Bats are shy creatures and do not attack people.

The bat advisory assures that through their monitoring, the local bat population does not have any transmittable zoonotic diseases, including Covid-19.

rainercheung@asiaone.com