Myth 8 of 10
8. Myth: bats are blind
All bat species can see. Many also use echolocation, a kind of sonar, but it adds to vision rather than replacing it.
Eyes and ears working together
There are more than 1,400 bat species, and they live in very different ways. Small bats that hunt insects at night often have small eyes and rely heavily on sound. Large fruit-eating bats in Asia, Africa and Oceania, on the other hand, have big eyes and good vision in the dark.
In echolocation, the bat emits high-pitched sounds, most of them above what the human ear can detect, and listens to the echoes that bounce back from objects. With this it calculates the distance, size and even the texture of an insect in mid-flight.
Studies have shown that many bats use vision to navigate over longer distances, such as on the way back to the roost, and sonar for close-up details. Some species can even see ultraviolet light.
Bats are also important to nature. Many eat huge quantities of insects, and others pollinate plants and spread seeds. The agave used to make tequila, for example, is pollinated by bats.
Brazil is home to more than 180 bat species, most of them insect- or fruit-eating. Of the more than 1,400 species worldwide, only three feed on blood, all of them in the Americas.
Did you know? Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight, flapping their wings. In practice, the wings are hands with very long fingers joined by a membrane of skin.
