Albany's Best Bat Removal

Can Bats See or Are They Blind?

Bats are not actually blind, although many of us believe that they are. In reality, they don't really need their eyes for all that much, using their other senses to get around, communicate with each other, and avoid flying into each other/buildings/trees. Because of that they don't have the best eyesight in the world. It's comparable to that of a human, perhaps a little less refined. They don't need it to see very well during the day, or over vast distances, because they don't come out during the day — they are nocturnal. A bat that is seen out during the day is one that has been kicked from the nest, has gotten itself lost, or is sick, potentially rabid.

What a bat will use instead of good eyesight, is a system called echolocation. Sounds are sent out, hit an object, and the echo returns to the bat, telling it a number of things. Bats use this system to talk to other bats, to find prey, to avoid predators, and also to avoid flying into things. Most bats fly very fast, and eyesight wouldn't always be the fastest-reacting sense to prevent them from having collisions or accidents. Echolocation, on the other hand, is fast enough, and does the job of protecting the bat rather well.

Echolocation tells the bat much more than what eyesight would, or even a few senses combined. If the sound hits another animal and bounces back, the echo informs the bat what kind of animal it is — a bat or another animal. It tells the bat whether or not that animal is a good one or a bad one — one to eat or one to avoid. It also tells the bat how far away the animal is, in which direction it is travelling, and the best route to take to either prey on that animal for food or head into another direction entirely. When the entire bat colony is flying around outside of the building or cave that they are roosting in, bats avoid hundreds of collisions each minute, and maybe even more than that.

What need do they have for good eyesight when they have echolocation on their side?