“Blind as a bat.- Ouch that must hurt. Especially if you’re a bat! Because bats are NOT blind. And they can see better at night than in daylight. The myth about their blindness could have come about because we all learn that they use echolocation – using echoes of self produced sounds bouncing off objects – to navigate. Research says that some bats do not echolocate and have sharp vision instead to help them. In fact, studies say that occasionally some bats use their eyes even for hunting. Reports suggest that there are more than 1,000 species of bats and they have evolved different visual abilities. For instance, there are species with visual receptors that help them see better in daylight and a few colours too. Apparently, some species can even see ultraviolet light, which humans can’t!

There are at least 1,300 species of bat, according to the advocacy group Bat Conservation International, and those species are a diverse bunch: Some feed off flowers; others eat insects; and three (all Latin American species) feed off blood.

So different species have evolved different visual abilities. Researchers reporting in a 2009 study in the journal PLOS ONE, for example, found that Pallas’s long-tongued bat (Glossophaga soricina) and Seba’s short-tailed bat (Carollia perspicillata), two small bats from South and Central America, have visual receptors enabling them to see in daylight and to see some colors. In fact, some of the receptors may enable these bat species to see ultraviolet light, wavelengths of color that are outside of the human visual spectrum. 

 

Picture Credit : Google