Why are the odds of finding a rabid animal, even a bat, very low?

This depends on time of year and time of day.

A good indication something is wrong is if you see a wild animal out in broad daylight that starts your way!

I ran into an armadillo I suspected of rabies instead of running away it came toward me at a fast speed. Lucky I had on boots I kicked it like a football.

If you find a bat in the daytime don't touch it

Skunks and racoons are the most likley animal you will encounter.

But rabies is fortunately rare these days.

Just use caution!

Don't be like the family of 13 that was killed by a cute little kitten back in old England! And if you get nipped by a dog you can't watch or don't know.

Better safe than sorry ask a doctor right away.

As you can see, there are a lot of variables to consider in trying to determine the incidence of rabies in bats. But interestingly, in a statistical analysis that considered all these different factors, the UC team came up with the same result they found in Western Alberta: in general, across North America, when considering the bat population as a whole, about one per cent of all bats have rabies.

But wait, it’s not that simple.

The more relevant question is, what are the odds of a person encountering a bat with rabies? In other words, which bat demographics is the best barometer for assessing the risk of rabies exposure to people? That would be the bats turned in for testing by the general public, which typically has a rabies prevalence of about 6 per cent. Exactly what the CDC said.

Bats aren’t the only reservoirs for rabies. The most frequently reported rabies sightings are of raccoons, followed by bats, skunks, and foxes. However, the most common source of human rabies in the United States is from bats. But it’s important to put things in perspective; assuming that 6 per cent of bats have rabies, that’s still a very small number. The odds of coming in direct contact with saliva or brain/nerve tissue from an infected bat are even slimmer. And if you’re unsure if you were bitten or otherwise exposed, quickly starting a preventative regimen of medications, if deemed necessary by a doctor, makes the chances of contracting rabies extremely unlikely.

Having said that, common sense must always prevail. If you encounter a bat, or for that matter, any other wild animal, don’t handle it unless you know what you’re doing.

The odds of finding a rabid animal depends on which country you are in. In the USA, the odds are low because most dogs and cats are vaccinated for rabies. Therefore the most likely animal to have rabies in the USA is the raccoon. Raccoons are not often seen by the average person, even though they are often found inside many of the busiest cities. They also tend to be active mostly at night so they are rarely encountered by the average person.

In contrast, rabies is much more common in Africa, and it is killing predators like cheetahs. Dogs are not as commonly vaccinated in African countries. In South America, rabies is spread by vampire bats, and it costs millions of dollars in damage to people and livestock every year.

Extremely low, even with incidence in your county. Bats are very low on the risk scale, most transmission is from rodents and animals that prey on them. Vaccinated animals, there is non existent chance.

Although I agree much with Cal King, the bat called vampire is called such for feeding exclusively on fed female mosquitoes. They are not known to bite humans and the presence of bacterium like West Nile virus would be more likely.

I also highly disagree to the 6 percentile of bats that may carry rabies, even 1%. That might apply to populations where tested specimens tested positive for rabies, but in my state, not one bat has tested positive for rabies in 20 years. In Ada county, a few specimens of ground squirrels have tested positive, but this is well under control.

Pretty low. Over the years we have made a lot of progress towards eradicating the disease. There's only about a dozen confirmed cases of humans getting but by rabid animals a year in the united states