Can You Spot the Hidden Bat in This Spooky Image?

Here’s a little puzzle to haunt you this Halloween: Try to find the bat in the spooky hidden-image puzzle below, whipped up by Lenstore.co.uk. It’s surprisingly tricky. Can you sort through the jack-o’-lanterns, ghosts, black cats, witches’ hats, and bubbling cauldrons to find the lone bat?

To keep you busy, we suggest you beef up your bat knowledge. You’ve probably seen bats swirling around the night sky hunting insects. But not all bats eat bugs: Some actually catch fish. And of course, vampire bats are famous for their taste for mammalian blood (but don’t worry, they don’t tend to go after people).

The bat in the above hidden image puzzle looks like a typical caricature of the animal. Not all bats look like it, though. The creatures come in all shapes and sizes—the smallest bat species weighs less than a single penny, whereas the largest clocks in at up to 3 pounds. They can be colorful, too. Some species have brilliant orange and black fur; a fitting look for a Halloween mascot. Others are covered in black and white patches, and one species even has an impressive tuft of hair atop its head.

Why are bats associated with Halloween?

There’s nothing inherently evil or spooky about bats, yet they’re still associated with Halloween. There are a few theories as to why.

The fact that they’re nocturnal may be one of the reasons they’re linked to the holiday. That, and their tendency to live in places like crevices and caves, could be why people associate them with darkness and death. Bats, along with other dark animals like crows and black cats, are often seen as symbols of evil.

Literature may also be to blame. In Bram Stoker’s highly influential novel Dracula, vampires are able to transform into bats. Dante’s Inferno also associates bats with the devil, and even depicts the devil as having bat-like wings.

If trying to find the hidden bat is still driving you batty even after learning all these fun facts, scroll down to see the solution. You could also make yourself a refreshing margarita to celebrate solving the puzzle—after all, bats play a key role in creating the tequila that goes into one.

The Solution

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A version of this story ran in 2018; it has been updated for 2024.