Wonders of God’s Creation

Nifty Neighbors of the Night

Wonders of GOD’SCreation

Bats are everywhere. They live on every continent (except Antarctica), and they exist across a spectrum of more than 1,200 unique species. They’re mammals, but they’re the only mammals with wings, which makes them unique in the animal world. Bats actually have pretty decent eyesight, which makes the old “blind as a bat” expression kind of amusing. However, most bats rely on a highly specialized technique known as echolocation in order to hunt their food. By emitting high-frequency pulses of sound (inaudible to the human ear) and listening to how that sound bounces off nearby objects, bats can target and capture tiny insects at high speeds. A whopping 70 percent of bats subsist entirely on insects, helping to control the local pest population and reduce the spread of insect-borne disease. However, some bats, like the lesser long-nosed bat pictured here, eat mainly nectar and fruit and help with pollination like oversized bees. As they use their long tongues to reach the nectar in desert flowers, their face and neck fur becomes coated in pollen, which then gets taken to the next flower. Bats play valuable roles in their respective ecosystems.

Pictured: Lesser longnosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) sipping nectar from a desert agave plant Photo by James Capo Text by James Capo and Jeremy Lallier