Murciélago

This article is about the famous bull. For the sports car, see Lamborghini Murciélago. For the Mexican professional wrestler, see Murciélago Velázquez.

Murciélago (Spanish for "Bat") was a Navarra fighting bull who gained fame after Lamborghini chose to name a supercar after him to continue the passion for bullfighting that Ferruccio Lamborghini, the company's founder, was famous for.

Murciélago was a 5-year dark-brown Retinta breed bull with partridge eye coat and middle-length horns. He was the third bull to fight at the at the Coso de los califas bullring in Córdoba, Murciélago was the second bull to be spared by the espada after surviving 24 jabs with the lance from the picador in a fight on 5 October, 1879, against the diestro Rafael "El Lagartijo" Molina Sánchez. Murciélago demonstrated its indomitable bravery during the bullfight that the crowd asked the matador to spare the bull.

According to the PR-specialists, the bull survived 90 sword strokes in a 5 October 1879 fight against Rafael "El Lagartijo" Molina Sánchez, at the Coso de los califas bullring in Córdoba, Spain. Its name means bat in Spanish. It is said that Murciélago fought with such passion and spirit that the crowd called for his life to be spared, an honour which the torero bestowed. The bull, which came from the farm of Joaquín del Val de Navarra, was later presented as a gift to Don Antonio Miura. Together with his brother, Don Eduardo Miura, they brought Murciélago into the Miura line by siring him with 70 cows. Bulls from the Miura ranch, located near Seville, Spain, are known for being large and ferocious.

The story's validity has been criticised, with some saying that a bull who had been stabbed deeply two dozen times would never be able to survive and reproduce.