Table Of ContentBATS
BATS
an illustrated guide to all species
M A R I A N N E TAY L OR
Merlin D. Tuttle
science editor & photographer
All photographs © MerlinTuttle.org,
except pages 10–11, 40–41 © MerlinTuttle.org/Photo by Paula Tuttle
First published in 2019 by
Ivy Press
An imprint of The Quarto Group
The Old Brewery, 6 Blundell Street
London N7 9BH, United Kingdom
T (0)20 7700 6700 F (0)20 7700 8066
www.QuartoKnows.com
© 2017 Quarto Publishing plc
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information
storage-and-retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright holder.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78240-557-3
Digital edition: 978-1-78240-7-768
Hardcover edition: 978-1-78240-5-573
This book was conceived, designed and produced by
Ivy Press
58 West Street, Brighton BN1 2RA, United Kingdom
Publisher Susan Kelly
Creative Director Michael Whitehead
Editorial Director Tom Kitch
Art Director James Lawrence
Commissioning Editor Kate Shanahan
Project Editor Elizabeth Clinton
Science Editor Merlin D. Tuttle
Designer Heather Bowen
Illustrators Richard Peters, Ginny Zeal
Editorial Assistant Niamh Jones
Printed in China
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover images: © MerlinTuttle.org
contents
foreword
6
introduction
8
Bat Research 10
What is a Bat? 12
Evolution 16
Diversity 19
Biology 22
Behavior 30
Ecology 44
Bats & People 48
About this Book 57
yangochiroptera accounts
58
yinpterochiroptera accounts
298
Index of Scientific Names 388
Index of Common Names 397
Acknowledgments & Biographies 400
6 FOREWORD
Foreword
I’ve been passionate about bats ever since discovering thousands
of Gray Myotis in a cave near my Tennessee home in 1959. Almost
nothing was yet known about them. However, stained cave ceilings,
guano deposits, and stories told by old-timers confirmed they had
once been among the most abundant mammals of eastern North
America. Health officials were erroneously blaming them for a rabies
outbreak in foxes, and cave owners were pouring kerosene into roosts
and incinerating thousands of bats at a time. They were in such
precipitous decline that leading experts were predicting extinction.
Beginning as a high school student, I went on to band more than
40,000 of them, trace their migratory movements, and document their
value and urgent need for protection as a part of my eventual doctoral
thesis. As I explained the value and needs of bats, fear began to be
replaced with understanding and appreciation. Cave owners and explorers
began to protect key roosting caves. Today, as a direct result, there are
millions more Gray Myotis than when their extinction was predicted.
For many other species, we are dangerously late in protecting them.
Worldwide, countless bat species remain in alarming decline,
victims of needless fear, persecution, and neglect. In recent decades
we have finally begun to document their essential roles in maintaining
the health of whole ecosystems, keeping insect populations in check,
dispersing seeds, and pollinating flowers. Our real fears should be
about losing them. Yet, far too often, sensational headlines warn of
potential disease pandemics instead. Bats will leave us alone if we
leave them alone, but toxic pesticides won’t.
Most of the world’s bats have barely been studied beyond having
been described as species. When it comes to amazing research
discoveries, they are a long-neglected goldmine. However, it is
FOREWORD 7
incumbent upon us scientists to go beyond exploitation for
knowledge alone. Bats urgently need help, and we who study them
bear responsibility for their survival. We must strive to leave more
than we find.
Some bats have gone extinct, unnoticed until years later. As an
ecologist, I am most concerned about the decline of species that
traditionally have formed large aggregations, especially those with
narrow cave requirements. These are vulnerable to so-called “Passenger
Pigeon effects.” For example, when numbers fall below critical
thresholds, they may be unable to heat roosts sufficiently to rear young.
As you will learn in this book, their loss can threaten the health of
whole ecosystems and economies.
Too often, we focus mostly on saving the rarest species, often
ones whose distribution is limited to a single small area. Though we
may love and want to save all bats, such species have the least impact
in ensuring the long-term health of our planet. Conservation status
listings can be dangerously misleading. As traditionally and here
applied, they often refer only to a species’ perceived risk of extinction.
However, long before extinction, a species can be reduced to biological
irrelevance. Keeping traditionally common species sufficiently
abundant to maintain ecosystem health should be a top priority.
It has often been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and
never has this been truer than in the case of bats. Hopefully, the pages
that follow will help more people to recognize bats as the intelligent,
curious, comical, even essential animals I have personally known for the
past sixty years.
Merlin D. Tuttle
As dusk falls, millions
of Brazilian Free-tailed
Bats (Tadarida
brasiliensis) leave their
maternity roost at
Bracken Cave, Texas,
in one of the world’s
most unforgettable
spectacles.
