Rating Every Bat

may i request the bechstein's bat and the common pipistrelle ? theyre probably my favourite bats from where i live, id love to hear your opinion!! thank you for running this blog!!!

Thank you for your patience! I just posted about the Common Pipistrelle, so let's dive into the Bechstein's Bat!

Today's Bat: Bechstein's Bat

Environmental Impact: The Bechstein's Bat is a British native species currently being threatened by a loss of deciduous tree habitat. In other areas of Europe, they qualify as near-threatened, while they are actively endangered in Wales. They're arboreal roosters with interesting social habits (more on that later), and they're vital in the areas they inhabit for insect control. An article I found from 2008 cited a distinct lack on conservation effort for the species, and my (admittedly brief) research didn't turn up anything to dispute that.

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Beauty: How photogenic! Their ears are their true beauty. So amazing are those lovely ears, the Bechstein's bat actually listens for insect sounds rather than relying on echolocation to hunt. The pink skin that peeks through the lighter areas of their fur is just adorable.

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Power: Alright, time to talk about socialization! Because these bats roost in trees, their colony sizes often outgrow the surface area of their chosen roosts. Therefore, they've developed an interesting social habit: individuals cycle from roost to roost, maintaining relationships with every colony and ensuring that everyone has a friendly place to rest their head. During the autumnal mating season, this behavior is taken even further, as colonies meet and swarm in order to introduce as much genetic diversity as possible. The power of friendship!!

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Overall: A beautiful friend who deserves some eyeballs. If you're aware of any specific conservation efforts being made for these little guys, please let me know so I can update my information!

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Hi! I'm currently helping to rehab this little guy and was wondering if you'd like to rate him (or the species in general, but also him if you like) Common Pippistrelle

Hello, little one! Best of luck to you in your rehabilitation efforts! (If you happen to be part of a rescue, I'd be happy to post about them!)

Today's Bat: Common Pipistrelle

Environmental Impact: I don't think I've ever met a less discerning bat. The range on these guys spreads across most of Europe, into Morocco, and even out to western Asia. They'll roost just about anywhere, changing location from nursery to nursery and season to season. Limestone caves, park trees, siding panels? Pipistrellus pipistrellus calls that free real estate. Interestingly, they do seem to form habits despite their widespread nature. Individuals will continually hunt in the same areas, especially around lakes, ponds, gardens, and parks. Additionally, their migratory range is a tight 100km (about 62 miles). If you hate mosquitoes and other common pest insects, you'll love this species' efficiency and indiscriminate nature.

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Beauty: Just look at that little fella. Classic brown coat, dark wing membranes, and the sweetest little snoot you ever saw. If you don't love the Common Pipistrelle on looks alone, I'm afraid your condition is terminal.

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Power: Aside from the classics (delayed fertilization, extreme adaptability), I learned something sweet about the Common Pipistrelle. Mating season is largely kept to autumn, during which time males will perform specific mating rituals for females. A beautiful song and swooping dance would certainly capture my heart!

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Overall: Thank you for sharing this little friend with us all. My own personal experience with the Common Pipistrelle had me partial to them, so it was fun to learn a little more!

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Thank you for asking, it's the Eastern Red Bat! I actually have a tattoo of one!

Sure thing! Seems like a nice bat to ease us back in.

Today's Bat: Korbat from Neopets

Environmental Impact: Like other Neopets, Korbats seem to be able to live in a variety of locations and are fairly omnivorous. They prefer to be active during the night, but can also be out and about during the day. They don't seem to have any particular niche, so they'll be scoring low on this metric.

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Beauty: Korbat is a cute, cartoony representation of a bat. The Jellyneo entry makes an allusion to vampire bats, but I don't see any strong resemblance there. I'm not a huge fan of the hands-on-wings look, but I do really like the spade tail and shell ears. The thing that interests me the most, appearance-wise, are the variations caused by paint-brushes and potions. It seems like there's a Korbat for every aesthetic!

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Power: Korbats defend themselves with their teeth and tails, though their temperaments tend friendly enough that they rarely do so. According to the Neopets wiki, they take less damage from Darkness attacks and more damage from Light ones, which seems appropriate for a bat. This cutey-pie doesn't read "powerhouse" to me.

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Overall: This here's a perfectly serviceable bat! I'm sure he packs a nostalgic punch for former Neopets kids, and I'm glad I got to meet him today!

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I'd be happy to!

Today's Bat: Desert Long-Eared Bat

Environmental Impact: The Desert Long-Eared Bat favors the arid regions of northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, where they fly low to the ground and echolocate for insects. Their main food source is thought to be arachnids (more on this later). Because of the lack of vegetation in their dessert habitat, they often roost on rock faces or in human-made buildings. Their conservation status is currently unknown, but they're incredibly well-adapted to their habitats.

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Beauty: The white fur on this species is quite striking, especially when paired with the pinkish coloration of their skin. I imagine them in their female-only roosts, discussing which brands of purple shampoo they like best. Additionally: holy moly, those ears are satellite dishes; truly a sign of bat beauty.

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Power: Unpinning the arachnid point from earlier: Desert Long-Eared Bats have been observed shaking off the stings of scorpions as they hunt, which leads researchers to believe that the bats are immune to the scorpions' venom. This, plus their ability to fall easily into and out of torpor with desert temperature fluctuations, make them a truly formidable and resilient bat.

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Overall: I'm really a fan of these cuties! Even if they weren't cute as a button, I'd admire them for their crusade against the scariest kind of bug I can think of.

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I absolutely do rate batsonas! My own fursona is a bat, maybe I'll share them here someday C:

Beauty: I really love the slim-digi-style legs here, they help minimize the legs in silhouette and emphasize the wings. Their ears and nose leaf are pristine. I have mixed feelings about batsonas with both arms and wings (my own batsona has a wings-only and an arms-and-wings variant), but I really like the claw-like fingers on this bat!

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We're back! Fulfilling the other half of this ask, let's review the classic, the ubiquitous, the beautiful... Silver-Haired Bat!

Environmental Impact: When you look at the Silver-Haired Bat, the Lion King's "Circle of Life" should play in your head. These frosted beauties are so enmeshed in the ecosystem of their wide North American range, a study referenced by ADW cites their worth at around $3.7 billion dollars of pest control. Not only are they excellent insect-eaters, they're an important prey source for predators like skunks, owls, and hawks. Unfortunately, this enmeshing has also lead to the species' several specialized illnesses; specifically, several kinds of mites, and a Silver-Haired Bat exclusive strain of rabies.

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Beauty: Wow, I love a Silver-Haired Bat. The dark body reminiscent of the cartoonists' ideal bat... their silver-tipped coats... their little lamb ears... their noses that put me in mind of my pet hedgehog... After a few weeks away, looking at this guy is like taking a cool drink in the hot desert (coincidentally, one of the only places the Silver-Haired bat doesn't like to live).

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Power: I love an opportunist, and the Silver-Haired Bat is especially good at getting while the getting's good. They can roost pretty much anywhere, including: in abandoned squirrel nests; in rotted tree hollows; in fissures and cracks in tree bark; in wood storage piles; under house siding panels; in naturally-formed caves; in abandoned mine shafts; and in cracks in cliff faces! They prefer heavily-forested areas, but they can and will snag winter roosts all along their migratory paths. This, and their wide range, make the Silver-Haired Bat one of the most adaptable species I know of.

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Overall: If your loved ones emerge from a coma and forget what a bat is, the Silver-Haired Bat is a good one to introduce them to. My fellow US-Americans can look forward to these guys' re-emergence in March!

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Thank you so much for all the bat love you've shared with me so far. I've been getting lots of bats requested in my inbox and I appreciate every single one! I'll keep working through them, so please don't be discouraged if I don't answer right away!!

I love cryptids, so I was thrilled that this guy was recently requested! The Ahool is a cryptid described as a 10-to-12-foot bat-ape with a terrifying cry. Without further ado, let's swoop in:

Environmental Impact: Since this is a cryptid native to Indonesia and the Phillipines, there are a few ways we could swing this. The first would be speculative: I'd imagine a creature this size would require a lot of food, provide a lot of fertilizing guano, and reign absolute terror on any human it came across. We could base it off of first-hand accounts, though they're varied and contradictory. We could base it off of the Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox's score, as I think that's the most likely real-life corollary (or myth origin, if you're not feeling whimsical). However, I'm going to default low here, because there simply isn't any real information available.

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Beauty: Looking at the several horrifying and ape-like depictions of the Ahool helped me see what people who are afraid of bats see. Because it's scary. I chose the above illustration because it didn't look like a sleep paralysis demon.

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Power: The telltale cry of the Ahool is the most concrete and iconic power I can name here. However... I know in my heart that this thing would eat me for breakfast if it could. Top marks.

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Overall: Yes to cryptids, yes to bats, no to getting eaten by a bate-ape twice my size.

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NOTE: I hesitate to list sources on this creature, as a lot of online articles about the Ahool simply spread misinformation about real-life bat species (ie claiming that Flying Foxes only echolocate, claiming that it must be more ape-like because Flying Foxes don't roost in trees, etc). I'm currently hunting for a printed source to get more information on ahool sightings, and I'll share that if/when I come across it. It's fun to play in the space when admiring cryptids and legends, but please remember to be respectful and inquisitive while you do so.

The Ahool ( A Filipino cryptid)

And

The Silver Haired Bat( adorable little babby)

I start by researching the bat (species or media property) to learn as much about them as I can. My first sources are always Animal Diversity Web and Bat Conservation International (for real species), but I try to supplement with other sources, books, and print articles where I can. I then separate what I've learned into the Environmental Impact, Beauty, and Power categories. The 1-5 🦇 rating is honestly mostly vibes-based, but I use the research I've done to inform how I feel about each one.

Environmental Impact is based around how they affect and are affected by their habitat. While I like to highlight how they help humanity (because bats often get a bad rap), no creature is more or less valuable or worthy of conservation just because of what they're doing for us.

Beauty is obviously very subjective, and I'm a biased party as a bat lover.

Power is for highlighting things about a bat that make it unique or special, things that you may not expect, or just for fun facts. Both quantity and uniqueness of powers make for higher scores.

The Overall is what I hope you'll take away, or a closing thought by me. Every bat deserves a 5/5 🦇 overall, because the purpose of this blog isn't to pit bats against each other, but rather to foster acceptance, awareness, and love for all bats.

Of course! How could I resist the ittiest bittiest babies?

Today's Bat: Bumblebee Bat

Environmental Impact: The Bumblebee Bat (aka the Kitti's Hog-Nosed Bat) is small in everything it does. It has a small range, roosting mostly in the Bilauktaung Mountain's limestone caves and hunting in its bamboo forests. They hover to capture insects in flight, and remain in a solitary, torpor-like state the rest of the time to conserve energy. The world's smallest mammals also have one of the world's smallest environmental impacts: their low population size means they have little impact on insect populations. They are on the IUCN Redlist as near-threatened.

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Beauty: While the first thing that hits you about a Bumblebee Bat is their size, don't let this stop you from admiring their other amazing qualities. They have lovely, wideset nostrils. Their short, pointed ears and large wing-t0-body ratio create a unique silhouette. They come in both grey-coated and red-coated variants, for whether you'd prefer your bumblebees in Original or Spicy flavor.

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Power: You can't expect an amazing power score from a creature that weighs two grams. The most interesting thing I found about these guys is that their two distinct populations, Myanmar and Thailand, have distinct calls, with the Thai population using higher-frequencies. I'll keep my eyes peeled to learn more about them!

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Overall: This is another species that's tied to Merlin Tuttle in my mind, as he recalls his adventures in trying to capture photographs of them (like the one above) in his book, The Secret Lives of Bats. He mentions how fear has driven human populations to kill roosting Bumblebee bats (and many other species) despite their largely harmless natures, which was a major factor in what lead me to creating this blog. Thank you for helping me continue to spread love and acceptance of these tiny friends!

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I'd never heard of this bat before, and a Google images search made my eyes pop out of my head like a cartoon dog. It's a little lazy to share the Wikipedia image of a creature, but I need you all to have the same exact experience I did when I saw it.

Today's Bat: Pallas's Long-Tongued Bat

Environmental Impact: With it's tongue of justice, the Pallas's Long-Tongued Bat patrols it's South American range. It prefers to eat nectar, since it's got the fastest metabolism of any mammal (!!) and needs the energy to be converted quickly. It does also eat pollen, flowers, fruit, and insects in order to build it's fat reserves... and then proceeds to burn 50% of that store daily. Pollinator, seed disperser, pesticide: this hero does it all at the speed of sound.

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Beauty: The Eastern Red Bat will always and forever be my favorite, but this guy is circling the throne right now. The reddish coat is spectacular, and the little ears are almost dog-like. And then... of course... that crazy-ass tongue. I can't tear my eyes away. I made my partner come over from the other room to stare at it with me.

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Power: Take one look at this guy and guess what his power is. That muscular licker is nature's multi-tool. By engorging it with blood, the Glossophaga soricina doubles the tongue's length and extends tiny, sticky hairs at its tip. By moving in a sweeping motion, the tongue efficiently mops up any and all food. This leathery hummingbird is racing to stay alive, and without the tongue, it would never be able to feed itself fast enough to survive.

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Overall: From the bottom of my heart, thank you for suggesting this bat. I'm going to the library now, to print out several pictures of Glossophaga soricina to hang around my home.

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Yes, thank you for your patience!

Today's Bat: Waterhouse's Leaf-Nosed Bat

Environmental Impact: The Waterhouse's Leaf-Nosed Bat has quite a range across Latin America. They tend to hunt low-to-the-ground and exhibit "hovering" maneuvers over grasses, and also utilize broad echolocation for a shorter hunting range. They have few predators, though they're known to carry parasites and nematodes. They're picky about roosts, choosing caves with varying sun exposure so they can circulate throughout and regulate their body temperatures. The Waterhouse likes to stay out of humanity's way, but they certainly won't pass up an abandoned mine shaft if the opportunity strikes. All in all, a solid contender!

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Beauty: These guys boast the classic bat aesthetic: cartilaginous ridges in the ear, proud nose, grey-brown fur, and a median body size. This is a bat I'd take home to meet my parents, for sure.

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Power: In another pique of reproductive intrigue, the Waterhouse Leaf-Nosed Bat chose an oddity for each sex. For one, a male bat's sperm count will vary throughout the year, which is the indicating factor for mating seasons. On the other side of the coin, females utilize the T4 Hormone to create a "delated development" pattern in embryos: by lowering the T4 hormone in the third trimester, they're able to speed the development of the offspring. Finally, the Waterhouse, while normally a more solitary kind of bat, boasts impressive mothering skills. Their nursery roosts can number up to 100 individuals!

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Overall: The Waterhouse's Leaf-Nosed Bat is to bats what the name Chris is to the Marvel filmography: standard, foundational, a joy to have around.

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