Bats

Dynamic, acrobatic, charismatic. This is what you need to know about our favorite winged creature of the night.

Latest in Bats

Bat flying down to attack a frog in rainforest pond

This tiny bat is one of the world’s deadliest hunters

A dark, grainy infrared or night-vision security camera image shows a mouse or rat on a ledge or windowsill, grappling with and biting a flying bat. The bat is visible on the left, upside down in mid-air with its wings spread, as the rodent lunges at it. The entire scene is dominated by shades of white and gray against a dark background.

Caught on camera: Rats hunting bats mid-flight

Two close up shots of two tube-nosed bat species

Six new bat species discovered in the Philippines

bat hanging upside down from tree branch at night

Why do bats spread so many diseases? They’re evolutionary marvels.

Greater noctule bat mid-flight

Europe’s biggest bat captures and devours birds while flying

Pippistrellus etula bat on tree branch

1,500th discovered bat species is a ‘god of the island’

close up of a spectral bat. it has large ears, small teeth, and a pointy nose

World’s largest carnivorous bats are big softies

By Laura Baisas

A fringe-lipped bat approaches a Fitzinger's robber frog in Panama. This species of bat eavesdrops on the mating calls that male frogs produce to attract females, and uses these frog calls to detect, assess, and localize its prey.

Young bats develop a ‘caller ID’ to avoid poisonous prey

By Laura Baisas

The Greater mouse-tailed bat flies through the night sky, searching for insects

How bats avoid crashing into one another

By Laura Baisas

bats on treadmills

Why scientists made vampire bats run on treadmills

By Mack DeGeurin

a small bat glides over water

How these tiny bats use a sound map to navigate

By Laura Baisas

a bat with brown, black, and white fur and open eyes

Robert Battinson, Batlor Swift, and more face off in Bat Beauty Contest

By Laura Baisas

Aerobat uses a combination or rigid and soft 3D-printed materials to mimic a bat's malleable wings.

Bats’ weird wings inspired this drone

By Mack DeGeurin

baby sloth poses for the camera on the tree

Which animals can and can’t fart?

By Alex Hazlett

bat in the dark

Can niche lives of bats help them avoid the white-nose syndrome?

By Trina Moyles / Hakai Magazine

Fruit bats hanging on tree branches in daylight in Bangladesh on November 6, 2023.

Why fruit bats can eat tons of sugar without getting diabetes

By Laura Baisas

A serotine bat with its mouth open, showing teeth. Serotine bats are widely spread throughout Europe and Asia and have a 15 inch wingspan.

Scientists are confounded by the sex lives of serontine bats

By Laura Baisas

Egyptian fruit bats on a fruit feeder at a zoo

How do bats stay cancer-free? The answer could be lifesaving for humans.

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

These species were discovered in museum collections. They might already be extinct.

These species were discovered in museum collections. They might already be extinct.

By Katarina Zimmer / Undark

Dolphins use echolocation to find fish and navigate in the dark sea.

How echolocation lets bats, dolphins, and even people navigate by sound