Zoologist — Bat Edition 2020
Essence
Bat Edition 2020 is Zoologist’s ground-up reinterpretation of its famous Bat, composed by Thai perfumer Prin Lomros after the original Ellen Covey formula left the house. It keeps the concept - a fruit bat’s tropical cave - but reweights it decisively toward the fruit: tart guava and passion fruit and fig over a damp soil accord, with hay, night-blooming jasmine, incense, oakmoss, and a leathery-animalic, vetiver-and-teak base. The result is greener, more masculine-leaning, more “wearable,” and less harrowing than the original. Lovers of the first version largely consider it tamer; newcomers often find it the more approachable, juicier “fruit bat.”
Scent Profile
The signature accord is dirty tropical fruit over damp earth - a sharp, sometimes flinch-inducing ripe-fruit opening grounded by soil. In the first 10 - 20 minutes, Bat 2020 opens with a SHARP burst of tart guava and passion fruit and fig, paired with a soil/damp-earth accord that reads less pungent and less “cave-dank” than the Covey original. Several wearer accounts describe the opening as cloying or even ammoniac/uriney from the dabber, but much fruitier and juicier when sprayed. Crucially, the original’s banana is gone - a deliberate move “toward the crowd,” as one reviewer put it. In the heart (1 - 3 hours), the fruit settles and hay becomes prominent - multiple reviewers (including farm-raised ones) immediately identify damp hay - alongside night-blooming jasmine (sometimes indolic), a mineral coolness, and a smoky incense thread. This is the phase that evokes a “stable,” “petting zoo,” or “tropical cow” to detractors and a lush jungle-cave buffet to fans. The animalic note here is more barnyard/hay than the original’s furry musk. The drydown (3+ hours) leans masculine and woody-leathery: oakmoss, teak wood, vetiver (a note reviewers note was “not there before at all” in the original), and a soft leather. Critic Robin memorably described it as smelling “more like a Beverly Hills man cave scented by a Diptyque Figuier candle than a bat cave” - i.e., a fresh fig-forward woody, not a dank cavern. It is more linear than the original after the fruit burns off, holding a stable figgy-woody-mossy base. Perceptible: guava/passion fruit, fig, hay, soil (milder), jasmine, oakmoss, vetiver. Submerged: incense (subtle), the animalic/leather (background warmth). Compared to the 2015 version, the soil is dialed down, banana removed, vetiver added, fruit amplified, and the overall drama softened. Signature character: a wearable “fruit bat” rather than a photorealistic cave.
Performance
As an extrait, performance is strong. Longevity is the headline: wearers routinely report 10+ hours on skin (“put it on at 9AM… 7PM and I still can smell it”) and “AGES” on clothing, with several calling it stronger and longer-lasting than expected. Projection is strong-to-moderate in the fruity opening, then moderate through the hay/jasmine heart, settling close-to-skin in the woody drydown. Sillage is moderate. The sharp fruit opening is the loudest phase; apply conservatively. In heat, the ripe fruit and animalic/hay facets amplify and can tip toward the “tropical cow”/stable reading; in cooler conditions the fruit reads crisper and the mineral-soil structure holds together better. Humidity reinforces the dank-cave illusion. Spraying (vs. dabbing) is strongly recommended - wearers consistently report the dabber accentuates the harsh ammoniac/animalic facet while spraying brings out the juicier fruit. Best strategy: 1 - 2 sprays, expecting a rough first ten minutes that resolves into a much more pleasant, comforting drydown (a commonly reported “regretted it at first, loved it by hour six” arc).
Wearing Context
Bat 2020 is more seasonally flexible than the original but still skews spring and autumn, with cool rainy evenings ideal; it can be pushed into summer given its tropical-fruit theme, at the risk of amplifying the animalic. Time of day leans evening, but its greater fruitiness and “wearability” make daytime casual wear plausible for the adventurous. It is genderless but, per multiple reviewers, drydown-leans masculine. It shines in casual, outdoorsy, or alternative settings and among those who appreciate a fruity-but-weird statement; one wearer framed it as a “scent for bosses only… For those who break the rules.” It still falls flat in conservative professional environments - the hay/animalic facet can read as “sweaty stablehand” to the uninitiated, and several note strangers might recoil. Social-perception skew remains polarized but less extreme than the original: it’s more likely to be read as “unusual fruity” than as “wet dirt.” Not a safe office or first-impression scent, but more forgiving than the 2015 Bat.
Comparisons & DNA
The defining comparison is to its own predecessor: Zoologist Bat (2015, Covey) / Olympic Orchids Night Flyer - the original is danker, soil-dominant, banana-laced, and more “vampire menace”; the 2020 is fruitier, hay-driven, greener, vetiver-inflected, and tamer. Wearer verdict is divided: a vocal contingent finds the 2020 a why-bother redo, while others actually prefer it to the original formulation, citing the strong, beautiful fig. Within Zoologist, the woody-figgy man-cave drydown invites comparison to the house’s other Prin Lomros work, Zoologist Sloth (Robin reviewed them together and noted shared base similarities) and the fruitier-earthier members of the lineup. For the fig facet, Robin’s “Diptyque Figuier candle” line points to Diptyque Philosykos / Premier Figuier as a clean-fig reference - but those are bright Mediterranean fig-leaf scents lacking Bat 2020’s soil, hay, and animalic underbelly. For the damp-earth DNA, the same references as the original apply - CB I Hate Perfume M2 Black March and Demeter Dirt - but Bat 2020 uses far less soil and far more fruit, so the kinship is weaker. There is no designer or Armaf/Lattafa/Maison Alhambra clone of this composition; like the original, it is too idiosyncratic to have spawned cheap dupes. Lineage: it is a flanker-by-necessity, created to fill the gap left by the original’s departure, and is part of Zoologist’s “Edition” reformulation convention (alongside Beaver Edition 2016 and Dragonfly Edition 2021).
Reception
Wearer reception is split along a clear fault line: those who knew and loved the original tend to find the 2020 a disappointment (“Give back the old formula. Buy Nightflyer,” “tropical cow,” “this is the bad copy of Nightflyer”), while those coming to it fresh frequently rate it highly (“One of the best Zoologist perfumes and as good as the original,” “Actually prefer this to the OG”). The most common praise: the fig is beautiful, longevity is stellar, and the fruity-animalic contrast is unique and well-crafted. The most common criticism: it’s less evocative and less dramatic than the original - the soil is muted, the banana gone, the “cave” reduced to a “hot, humid, shallow tropical cave” rather than the cold dripping cavern people wanted. A recurring, vivid complaint is barnyard/stable/ammonia (“sweaty stablehand,” “litter box,” “animal cage that needs cleaning”), heavily dependent on application method and skin chemistry. Named critical coverage is thinner than for the original (it launched mid-COVID, awkwardly for a fragrance named Bat - a coincidence several noted). The key review is critic Robin, whose verdict was lukewarm: new Bat is “basically a fresh fig perfume,” “nowhere near as interesting as Covey’s original Bat/current Night Flyer,” and likely to feel “tame” to lovers of the wild original. One critic magazine framing was warmer, calling it “a distillation of the forbidden fruit: mysterious, slightly off-putting, yet strangely alluring.” Blind-buy verdict: NO - sample first, both because of the polarizing animalic facet and because anyone expecting the legendary original will be surprised. For fans of fruity-weird, it is a strong sample candidate.
Versions & Reformulation
Bat Edition 2020 is itself the reformulation/replacement - it is NOT a tweak of the 2015 Bat but an entirely new composition by a different perfumer (Prin Lomros vs. ellen Covey). Zoologist’s own site states it “is a new interpretation of a fruit bat living in the tropics… The original version, designed by Ellen Covey, is discontinued and no longer available.” The relationship to the original: the 2015 formula left the house (Covey retained it) and now lives on as Olympic Orchids Night Flyer; Zoologist kept the “Bat” name and commissioned this new juice. The confusing part - flagged by critic Robin - is that Zoologist retained the original bat artwork/label and the “Bat” name rather than launching a distinct animal, “an invitation to confusion and disgruntlement.” It is an extrait de parfum. No further reformulation of the 2020 edition is documented; it remains the current in-production Bat.
Acquisition Notes
The cataloged full-bottle reference is 200 USD / 60 ml. Current Zoologist formats center on full bottles, with samples and travel sprays available for trial. Sampling is the sensible first step, especially for the house’s more animalic or conceptual entries. Buy through official or authorized channels and confirm the exact edition for similarly named releases.
Notable Facts & Lore
- Ellen Covey’s exit forced a from-scratch redo of the house’s most celebrated fragrance.
- This makes Bat 2020 a rare case of a beloved niche fragrance being publicly, openly re-created by a different nose under the same name while the original simultaneously continues elsewhere (Night Flyer) - a natural A/B experiment wearers have relished.
- Perfumer Prin Lomros is the Thai nose behind several Zoologist releases (including Sloth, reviewed alongside Bat 2020).
- The COVID-era timing of a fragrance named “Bat” in 2020 was widely remarked upon as unfortunate coincidence.
- Zoologist’s documented brand intent for this version foregrounds the tropical-jungle feast - “sweet guavas and passion fruits” leading “deep with primordial mineral scents” - a notably fruitier, less menacing narrative than Covey’s cold-cave framing.