What Is It Like to Be a Bat From Their Point of View?

Bats are fascinating and highly diverse animals who are widely misunderstood and demonized. I love watching them whenever I'm fortunate enough to see them, so when I learned about Alyson Brokaw's fascinating and beautifully illustrated new book The Weird and Wonderful World of Bats: Demystifying These Often-Misunderstood Creatures, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I'm thrilled I did and came to gain a much better understanding of who these mysterious mammals are and how they experience the world through their unique senses. Here's what Alyson had to say about her eye-opening book that made me once again think about Thomas Nagel's classic 1974 paper "What Is It Like to be a Bat?" that generated wide-ranging interest into what's going on in the minds of other animals.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write The Weird and Wonderful World of Bats?

Alyson Brokaw: I had two goals in mind when writing this book: (1) providing background and easy answers for some of the most common questions people have about bats and (2) introducing people to aspects of bat ecology that they may have never thought to ask about themselves, but still find relatable.

Most people have never encountered a bat up close, and when they do, the bat may not be on its best behavior (injured, sick, or scared). I wanted to remind people that despite their reputations, bats are not that different from humans—they travel, court mates, raise young, argue and compete with each other, and grow old. I also wanted to lean into their weirdness. Bats are a diverse group of mammals, but we often don’t see the full spectrum of what they are and what they do. I really wanted to shine a light on all the things that make bats unique.

MB: How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest?

AB: I’m a bat biologist by training and have a deep love of bats and wildlife. My research interests are in sensory ecology and animal behavior—how animals use their senses to interact with their environment. My research has focused on bat social communication (both acoustic and olfactory), as well as foraging behaviors. I have been fortunate enough to do bat-related fieldwork in beautiful places, both at home in the US and abroad (Mexico, Belize, and Panama). In addition to research, I am also passionate about science communication and talking about science with people. Writing this book was an amazing opportunity to combine those two things, and I had a lot of fun doing the research and writing for this book.

MB: Who do you hope to reach?

AB: I hope that anyone who has any kind of interest in nature, wildlife, or how humans interact with nature will find something of value in this book. The writing is aimed at a general background, so a reader doesn’t need to have a deep background in science to appreciate the facts and stories I share throughout the book. I also hope that even if someone already knows a bit about bats, they will still find something new and interesting in this book.

MB: What are some of the major topics you consider?

AB: The book is divided into three parts. The first two parts are focused on various aspects of bat biology and introduce the reader to the diversity of bats—how they use echolocation to get around, how well they see (they aren’t blind), the different ways and types of things that they eat, and where they live (just to name a few of the topics).

Cool animal facts aside, I think the most important chapters are the ones toward the end, focusing on bat relationships to disease, what we can learn from bats to improve human lives, and the conservation challenges bats are currently facing worldwide. One important topic I discuss is myths and misunderstandings around bats and diseases. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, I have found the messaging around bats and disease to be complicated and very often negatively sensationalized. I wanted to try to provide a balanced perspective that doesn’t shy away from well-designed scientific research linking bats and certain diseases but also makes it clear that bats are not "at fault" for diseases that spill over into humans.

I also highlight the value of bats, both to humans and to the environment as a whole. Related to bats and disease, I talk about how understanding bat immune systems can be beneficial to addressing those topics in humans. Bats play important, varied roles in the ecosystem as pollinators, seed dispersers, and predators, all of which have significant economic value to humans.

Then, hopefully after I’ve convinced everyone how important and amazing bats are, I wanted to bring attention to the major conservation concerns around bats. This includes some of the more well-known issues like habitat loss and hunting/persecution, but also invasive predators and wind turbine facilities. Having some experience working with affected bat populations, I also summarize concerns regarding white-nose syndrome (WNS), the fungal disease that has had drastic impacts on North American bat populations. It can be easy for conservation narratives to come off as bleak and despairing, but, despite the challenges, there is still a lot of hope for protecting these amazing animals. The final chapter also includes some easy tips on how the reader can contribute to bat conservation in their own way.¹

MB: Are you hopeful that as people learn more about who these amazing animals are they will come to appreciate them more and treat them with more respect?

AB: Absolutely! My hope is that by seeing the broad diversity of bats and learning more about how they interact with each other, the world, and humans, they will no longer seem scary or "other." Even if people don’t walk away from my book with the same love of bats that I have, I hope that they will at least appreciate their importance in our ecosystems and feel prepared with some of the knowledge they need to combat misinformation.