Hallowe'en is just around the corner, and the shop windows are full of cardboard bats, an example of the bad press which these mammals attract. The sight of a bat is supposed to engender fear and loathing, and the belief that bats will get tangled in hair is widely held.
However, some people think bats are just fine, which is lucky for these generally misunderstood creatures. Numbered among their fans is a five-member team, three of them from Queen's University Belfast, which plans to spend three months studying the bats of Madagascar.
Mr Jon Russ, of the department of biology and biochemistry and the team's scientific officer, admitted to being "addicted" to the small, furry animals. He also acknowledged that their study does not always contribute to the quality of one's social life, with the night spent in the wild.
There were benefits, however, including a shortage of researchers pursuing the subject. "It is like working in a new field; there are so few involved in it."
This has opened the way to surprising developments, for example, the discovery of a new species of bat, Nathusius' pipistrelle, in Ireland by his group last year.
He will be joined in Madagascar by Mr James O'Neill and Ms Linda Sadlier, of Queen's, and Mr Dan Bennett and Mr Keith Ross, of Aberdeen University. The trip gets under way early next year.
The bat populations of Madagascar have had incomplete study despite their key importance to the island's rain forests as both pollinators and distributors of plant seeds.
In particular, the team will be looking for an extremely rare bat, Myzopoda aurita, the suckerfooted bat, so called because of the pads on its feet which are used to hang on to palms.
The research will involve living in the rain forest for extended periods, although the latest high-tech equipment will be used to seek out the bats, including the aptly named "bat detector". This records the ultrasound signals emitted by bats and can convert them for display on a computer screen.