Ocala's Best Bat Removal

Are bats blind?

One commonly known fact about bats is that they are blind, and unable to see things right before their very eyes. However, the truth is a little more complex than that, and in this article, we'll set out to answer, at length, the question.

Bats and blindness - why is there a connection?

The reason most people assume bats are blind is that they are largely nocturnal creatures. Because of this, they constantly have to orient themselves in space through very poor lighting conditions, and so are considered largely blind by the majority of the population.

However, bats are not technically blind at all. Interestingly enough, in fact, bats are said to have a keener sense of eyesight than even many humans do. It just works differently. Constantly having to adapt to poor lighting conditions, bats have come to rely heavily on their echolocation system to navigate through space. We'll talk a bit more about how that works in just a moment, but for now, let's focus on the whole blindness claim.

We assume that bats are blind because they have very small and different eyes from our own. Because of their nocturnal nature, their eyes are highly sensitive and have adapted to see in conditions that humans would most likely consider completely dark. Because when you're soaring high in the sky at 60 miles an hour in the pitch-black night, you have to be able to see where you're going, right?

Because of this increased sensitivity, bats have trouble adapting to normal lighting conditions, as well as to the darkness. But although their eyes are highly sensitive and all in all different from our own, that does not make them blind, as most people tend to assume.

Bats and echolocation - how does that work?

In order to better demystify the whole "bats are blind" story, it's worth looking into the way bats communicate through a process known as echolocation. They emit high-pitched screeches and songs (on a frequency that's far too high for the human ear to catch) through their noses and mouths, which other bats receive through their ears. This allows them to avoid one another in flight, hunt, or mark their territory.

But echolocation plays an even more important role in bats' communication with their environment. Through this communication process, bats can literally "see" with their ears, because these high-pitched noises alert them to the location of various obstacles, and facts about their immediate surroundings. This allows the bat to calculate, in a matter of seconds, what they can do to navigate the situation safely and correctly. This is what makes bats highly skilled and accurate flyers - their ability to see their environment through the sounds their ears receive. So not only are bats not actually blind, they can even use their hearing system to locate prey, obstacles, and each other. How cool is that?

So, coming back to our title question, are bats blind?

No, bats are not blind by any stretch of the imagination. Since they exist in darkness, it's all too easy to assume that their eyes have deteriorated heavily because of the poor illumination. And while their nocturnal nature has, indeed, influenced them rather heavily, it doesn't by any means imply that they're blind. In fact, a bat's eyes can show impressive accuracy in locating prey in complete darkness, something that no human can boast. So next time someone uses the expression "blind as a bat", feel free to tell them just how and why it's inaccurate.

Bats aren't blind. They can see with their ears and their eyes.