Last week I saw a couple of small hawks attacking a bat swarm as they came out of their cave at sunset. Less of a transmission vector probably, but there seems to be a lot more interaction between bats and other animals than I thought. I wonder if domestic cats attack bats.
I have no doubt. Cats have an incredible prey drive, and it would be down right batty for them to have some sort of hardwiring to avoid bats when they happily attack moths who have a similar flight pattern. I haven’t personally seen one catch a bat, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all. A cursory search says indicates it happens.
Although for whatever reason I would be more concerned about a dog finding, rubbing in and eating a dead bat. I mean I don’t know what percentage of bats die while out, but it can’t be zero, and dogs—especially spitz-types—are remarkable at finding dead animals. Now that I think of it, I could easily imagine a person getting direct exposure to diseased bat remains through that vector. People typically put their hands on the shoulders of dogs and think little of it.
More anecdotally, I knew a cat that brought in bats almost daily, which is why the owner had her vaccinated against rabies (classical rabies RABV has been extirpated here).
