A man attacked by a rabid bat in the Mojave National Preserve will probably die if not found and treated by health officials. Eyewitnesses say the bat landed on the mystery man's neck outside the desert park's book store at the Kelso Depot between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The man wandered off, oblivious, and the bat fell dead from rabies.

Unless treated before the awful symptoms begin—including fever, confusion and rage—rabies is nearly always fatal in humans.

Many victims don't even feel the bite from the tiny needle-like teeth of common American bats.

“If you know this man, it is very important that we speak with him,” a San Bernardino County Health Department officer said in a statement Thursday.

Do you know somebody who went to Mojave National Preserve on April 30? Maybe they've got a new book from the Kelso Deport book shop, and red marks on their neck? Keep your distance and contact the Communicable Disease office in San Bernardino County.

A little girl in Massachusetts was bitten by a rabid bat last year after a sociopathic adult encouraged kids at a park to pick up one of the sickly creatures that tumbled out of a tree.

[Photo via County of Los Angeles.]