Are bats blind?

Bats are known to be nocturnal animals, sleeping during the day and hunting, flying, mating during the night. Their eyes, usually tiny and black, don’t seem to be a particularly significant tool in their survival. For these reasons, bats are considered to be blind. Their eyes are considered to be less developed, as their sight is considered to be an inferior sense to their other highly sharpened senses and abilities. However, this is only a partial truth. The real truth about bat’s ability to see is a bit different than what’s thought of in general.



First things first, the actual truth is that the bets are not actually blind. However, the eyesight is by far not the most important sense they depend on when it comes to their survival. However, even though bats aren’t technically completely blind, their sight is what we would call a secondary mean to survive. Bats actually use their ears to “see”, if by sight we mean the ability of orientation within space and environment, determining the distance between them and other objects, and finding a proper and successful route to get from the “point A” to the “point B”. Because evolution shaped bats into creatures that will be dominantly active during the night, fast and precise in their flying and hunting, it equipped them with other mechanisms that will compensate the lack of eyesight.

The truth is, the eyesight of bats is less sharp and intense than in most other animals. Depending on the particular species of the bat, their eyesight quality can range from very poor to quite precise. Indeed, there are types of bats that are almost blind, but the eyesight is one of the elements that gives bats a complete image of the space and prey. Joined with their ultrasonic hearing, bats use their eyesight to efficiently spot even the smallest of insect in the greatest of distances, which is by far more superior and complex form of “seeing” than in most other animals, as it is combined with their ability of echolocation, which allows them to use high-frequency ultrasonic sound waves to gather detailed information about their surroundings. What is unique about bats, is that they are equipped with several mechanism of superior hearing, which are normally found in other animals as well, but rarely combined. This makes them faster and better flyers and hunters than birds, whales, dolphins and other animal species that use similar mechanisms.

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