Bats smell, hear, taste, feel and see just like people do.  The term “blind as a bat” isn’t really accurate.  Bats have perfectly good eyes for seeing in the daylight.  The problem is, they do most of their hunting at night!

Microbats have the best hearing of all land mammals.  They often have huge ears compared to the rest of their body to easily hear. This is because instead of relying on their sense of sight for night-time vision, microbats make rapid high-pitched squeaks called “ultrasounds.”  These sounds are too high for most people to hear, but the microbats’ large ears allow them to hear the sounds.  If these ultrasounds hit something, they bounce back — sort of like when you hear your echo in a mountain or a bathroom when you shout.  The microbat hears the echo and can tell where the object is.  This is called “echolocation”.  Not every species of bat is able to echolocate, but most can. Watch this video about echolocation and bat ears.

This bat echolocates with its nose leaves, not its voice.

We all know that we shouldn’t talk with our mouths full — and this causes a certain amount of difficulty for some bats who eat while flying (they swoop and catch insects — eating them while they’re still in the air).  Although some microbats make the squeaks needed for echolocation with their mouths, many send out sounds through their noses.  Bats that echolocate with their nose often have special flaps and folds of skin on their faces called “nose leaves”.  Scientists think that the nose leaves help the bats send the sounds in different directions. Read how humans can use echolocation to help them see, too.

Remember, most megabats don’t use echolocation. They use their great sense of smell and eyes to find food in the dark.

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