How Do Bats ‘See’ if They’re Blind?
Bats have a bit of a reputation for flying blind thru the night sky, but... is that really true? Are bats actually blind, and if so, how do they know where they’re going?
Bats have a bit of a reputation for being well blind as a bat as they fly through the night sky but is that really true are bats actually blind and if so do they know where they're going let's.
lots of people think that bats stick to caves attics and other dark places because they're blind but it turns out that's actually a myth most bats have decent vision and some species like fruit bats actually have particularly good vision and can even see uv light so what's with all
the confusion why do we think of bats as blind well bats do hunt in the dark using echolocation they make small sounds that bounce off whatever's around them how long it takes a sound to bounce back tells the bat how close it is so that really means that bats navigate at night by hearing what's around them instead of seeing it but it doesn't mean they're blind in fact lots of fruit bats never use echolocation at all and use their good vision to find fruit and flower nectar to drink even when bats fly around in the dark of night experts believe that most of them use a combination of what they can see with their eyes and what they can hear using their echolocation so while bats definitely spend enough time lurking in dark caves to earn their blood-curdling reputation it turns out they're not quite as menacing as they seem you see blindness isn't the only common myth about bats for starters they rarely drink blood there are well over 1 000 different species of bats and only three known to drink blood most eat insects flowers or fruit and pose no danger to people in fact we should be happy to have them bats can eat hundreds even thousands of mosquitoes in an hour eat other insects that damage crops and even help pollinate certain species of fruit so next time you see a bat try not to freak out and take a second to appreciate one of the strangest mammals on earth then get out of there as fast as you can
