Are Bats Blind?
Letemdangle
Published
09/17/2012
The reality: Bats see just fine, thank you very much. Bats likeChiroderma villosum (shown above) have eyes, and their eyes work. It's as simple as that. So what's the origin of this myth? Like dogs, bats rely heavily on other senses like hearing and smell. In fact, using a hyper-advanced sound-based system called echolocation, bats are able to maintain their bearings while flying at night and to hunt nearly invisible prey in the dark. It may be the fact that these creatures are unfazed by darkness that has led people to assume their eyes are vestigial.
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