KINGSTON — With swooping wings, chirping calls and the cover of night, a real “Batman” descended on Kingston Wednesday evening to dispel myths about the nocturnal animal. Though he wasn’t wielding a gadget-filled utility belt, driving the Batmobile, or with Robin — the “Boy Wonder” — in tow the Batman instead used facts and a Power Point presentation to discuss Chiroptera.

Wildlife biologist Dan Hannafious was able to transform the crowd of about 50 people from skeptical adults to curious bat lovers, with these tools, in the time it takes billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne to select and buy a diamond-laden Rolex.

“It is amazing how many closet bat people came out this evening,” said Friends of Miller Bay member Niki Quester, indicating the standing room only crowd at North Kitsap Fire & Rescue headquarters.

Hannafious’ presentation delved deep into the caves of fact, shining a bright light into the world of Chiroptera. The first mystery he touched on concerned vampire bats, which tend to draw the greatest response from the public.

“So, there are about 1,000 species of bats in the world, out of 4,000 mammal species,” Hannafious said. “And vampire bats take up, oh about 90 percent of them, right? At least, as far as most people are concerned.”

Indicating a pie chart on the true nature of the bat species, he noted only 3 percent are vampire bats — the smallest percentile in the group. The largest percentage are insectivores, then fruit bats, pollinators, carnivores, fish eating bats and vampire bats, he said. They come in all shapes and sizes, from smaller than a human thumb to practically the size of The Penguin himself. No Joker.

“Where can those bats be found?” asked one nervous audience member after Hannafious described a brown bat with a wingspan of about six feet.

“Mostly Indianola,” Hannafious said, drawing laughs from the crowd. “Actually they are normally found in Somalia.”

The second myth he banished was the “blind as a bat” cliche. Contrary to common belief, bats can see as well as humans, but they have the added bonus of using echolocation, a type of sonar, while flying, he said.

“Scientists found this out when they put covers over bats’ eyes, and let them loose in a room,” Hannafious said. “The bats were fine, zooming around without a problem. As soon as the scientists stuffed cotton in the bats’ ears, they started bonking into things. It shows that they form pictures using echolocation.”

Hannafious drew specific lines between other mammals and the bat, showing how they fit into the species line. Mostly he focused on spreading information about bats to dispel reoccurring myths about them.

“It was awesome, there’s just so much to know about the bat,” said Kingston resident Malia Morrow. “The only time I ever encountered bats was in the Woodland Park Zoo. I had no idea there was all this information out there.”

“Bats are among the most misunderstood animals,” Hannafious said. “There really needs to be more information put out there so people will realize the wives’ tales just aren’t true.”