Blind As A Bat

Being blind as a bat, isn’t really being blind. Bats are not blind, they actually have excellent vision. Bats use echolocation to navigate and find food in the dark. To echolocate, bats send out sound waves from the mouth or nose. When the sound waves hit an object they produce echoes. The echo bounces off the object and returns to the bats’ ears. Their vision gives them a much more complete picture, and at higher resolution, than an ultrasonic image, but when they combine their eyesight with their echolocation they achieve a sort of 20/20 super-vision. Bats have learned that insect activity peaks at night, so they come out at dusk for their meals. Bats are able to find insects faster than any bird.

It turns out that many of the stories about bats are just myths. Bats are not dirty and they generally don’t bother people at all. They look sort of creepy, especially when they are hanging upside down, but they won’t try to make a nest in your hair, as they don’t make nests. Their guano, a spiffy word for bat poop helps to disperse seeds and regenerate plants. Bats are pollinators, so if you enjoy bananas or avocados, you need to thank bats for that. Bats eat the type of insects that enjoy eating crops and gardens, so keeping bats around is a good thing. Bats can have rabies so you should never disturb a bat.