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How Do Bats See?

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Louisville Bat Removal and Control

Louisville Bat Removal and Control 502-553-7622

Many people incorrectly assume that bats are blind. The truth is, no species of bat is naturally blind. In fact, most bats have pretty good vision. However, some bats rely on other senses more than they do their eyesight to navigate during flight. If you just learned something new about bats, you will be interested in what comes next.

Continue reading to learn more about bats and how they see!

Bats are Nocturnal

Both primary categories of bats, Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera, are nocturnal. This means they are active between dusk and dawn, and rest between dawn and dusk. Although it is dark outside when they are active, both bats can still see. They can even see well during the day. They are sensitive to daylight changes, however, which is how they sense it is time to start or stop their day.

Echolocation and Other Senses

Because bats are active at night, many people wrongly assume that bats can’t see at night, so they only use echolocation (a natural sonar practice using series of tongue clicks) to navigate around. Although Microchiroptera use echolocation, it is not their only means of vision. They use echolocation to hunt for prey and navigate during flight, but they can also see quite well. In fact, they rely more on their vision to see long distances since these distances are beyond the range of echolocation. Megachiroptera bats, on the other hand, do not use sonar at all, and only rely on their eyesight, hearing, and smell to get around.

Bats are Not Blind!

So in conclusion, bats are not blind after all. Microchiroptera bats have sufficiently-developed photo-receptor cells in their retinas (cones and rods), which allow them to see well during the day and the night. Also, Megachiroptera bats have large eyes and well-pronounced visual centers that allow them to see well. Both species of bat use all their senses to navigate around, just like humans. But some species rely on senses more than others.

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Louisville Bat Removal Kentucky

Louisville Bat Removal 502-553-7622

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Do You Think Bats Are Blind?

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Who ever said they were “blind as a bat” has a lot of explaining to do! There are over 100 species of bat in the world and every single one can see fairly well. The truth is that bats are not blind at all; they just have different visual capacities than other animals. Because they are nocturnal, they use alternative senses as well to communicate and see at night. Continue reading to learn about the differences between major bat species when it comes to their eyesight and sight aptitude.

Megachiroptera Bat Species

There are two species of bats, Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera. They are believed to share the same descendants, but overtime, evolved separately from each other. Megachiroptera bats are mostly medium and large in size. These megabats generally feed on fruits, nectar, and at times, fish or small animals. Additional terms for Megachiroptera bats include Flying Foxes, Fruit Bats, Megabats, and Old World Fruit Bats.

Megachiroptera bat species have large eyes and visual centers; allowing them to see better at night. They use their sight, as well as, their sense of smell to navigate in the dark and catch their prey. For example, a Flying Fox can also see during the day and in color as well! In fact, they cannot see or fly well on moonless nights, making them rely on their daytime vision.

Microchiroptera Bats

Microchiroptera bats are the smaller species of bat. They mostly eat insects and hunt them through the process of echolocation. Echolocation is the system that allows bats to navigate around, map out their surroundings, and catch their prey. It is like a sonar system that bounces high-frequency sounds off nearby objects; allowing them to grid their surroundings. You see, in mammals, there are two types of photo-receptors: cones and rods. Cones are primarily for daytime and color vision; whereas rods are for night vision. Without mentioning, you can already guess which species of bat has more of what. It’s not that micro bats do not have cones, they simply have under-developed ones compared to their sister species, the Mega bat.

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Are Bats Really Blind?

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An interesting fact about bats is that they are the only mammal to use their own power to fly. Other mammals may appear to be able to fly, such as the flying squirrel; but they only glide. Bats are true flight-capable mammals, controlling their own flight and power. It is a truly magnificent ability for a member of the Mammalia class.

You might interject with the fact that birds can fly; but they do this with the use of their feathers, when bats only have fur! This is what we mean when we say they use their OWN power to fly. So if bats are capable of such an extraordinary skill, why do so many people think they cannot see? Continue reading to learn more about bats vision abilities and the truth behind the age-old myth that all bats are blind.

How Do Bats See?

Bats use their eyes to see! Bats are not blind at all; they just do not have a wide vision capacity. Humans and other animals have better-developed eyesight, giving bats the “blind” reputation. Bats use their eyes, as well as, their other senses to get around at night. On top of eyesight, bats rely on sonar to see. Sonar is technique bats use to create an invisible grid of their surroundings. They give odd high-frequency sounds the bounce of the surrounding objects and return to them as echoes. Turning auditory information into visual maps is a method of charting that is also used by humans in various industries all around the world!

There are two types of bats, both thought to evolve separately but come from the same ancestry. They are the Megachiroptera and the Microchiroptera. The Mega bats are larger and maintain a diet consisting mostly of fruits, nectar, small fish, rodents, and amphibians. They have large eyes and prominent noses; as a result, they primarily rely on their sense of sight and smell to locate and hunt prey. Some species of Megachiroptera can even see in color. Although nocturnal, most species of Mega bat can see in the daylight due to their highly evolved visual centers. In fact, they can have trouble flying on moonless nights.

Micro bats have smaller eyes and mostly rely on their sense of smell and echolocation to see and hunt their prey. Mammals generally have two types of photoreceptor cells in their eyes: cones for daytime and color vision, and rods for nighttime vision. Micro bats have always been thought to only have rods; but recent studies show that they too have cones, just underdeveloped ones.

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