Contrary to what many may believe, bats are not blind and some can see fairly well, even in dim light. Most fruit-eating bats have rather large eyes that help them find their way around in the dark and locate food. However, other bats, especially those that hunt for insects at night rely a lot more on their other senses in the dark.
Whatever vision bats may lack in the dark, they make up for by seeing with their ears. The technique they use is called echolocation. Bats locate objects by sending out streams of high pitched sounds through their mouth or nose. Once these signals are sent out, they bounce off of nearby objects and send echoes back to the bat. By “reading” these echoes, a bat can determine the location, distance, size, shape and even texture of an object. In some cases, a bat might even use this technique to tell if an insect is edible or not. Bats that have been blinded somehow catch their food this way and get around just fine thanks to their super sensitive ears.
Leave a Reply