Bats

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

Latest in Bats

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.
Environment

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
Environment

How bats avoid crashing into one another

By Laura Baisas

bats on treadmills
Environment

Why scientists made vampire bats run on treadmills

By Mack DeGeurin

a small bat glides over water
Environment

How these tiny bats use a sound map to navigate

By Laura Baisas

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

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.
Technology

Bats’ weird wings inspired this drone

By Mack DeGeurin

baby sloth poses for the camera on the tree
Science

Which animals can and can’t fart? 

By Alex Hazlett

bat in the dark
Environment

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.
Science

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.
Environment

Scientists are confounded by the sex lives of serontine bats

By Laura Baisas

Egyptian fruit bats on a fruit feeder at a zoo
Environment

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.
Science

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.
Science

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

By Ben Guarino

Skeleton of paratype of Icaronycteris gunnelli, the oldest bat skeletons ever found.
Environment

Oldest bat skeleton ever found by paleontologists finally has a name

By Laura Baisas

Luna moth resting on a tree.
Science

The alluring tail of the Luna moth is surprisingly useless for finding a mate

By Jamie Dickman

A dark wooden bat house high up on the side of a gray two-story house.
DIY

Benefit your neighborhood bats with this DIY bat house

By Jean Levasseur

The secrets to fighting the next pandemic could be in fruit bats
Environment

The secrets to fighting the next pandemic could be in fruit bats

By Jim Robbins / KHN

Bat hanging upside down from branch
Technology

Bat-like echolocation could help these robots find lost people

By Andrew Paul

Notopteris neocaledonica, the New Caledonia blossom bat, an endangered bat species endemic to New Caledonia.
DIY

How to get a bat out of your house

By Natalie Wallington

Daubenton's bat is similar to metal singers
Environment

What bats and metal vocalists have in common

By Laura Baisas