Bats

The ultimate illustrated guide to all known bat species

Bats: An Illustrated Guide to All Species explores bats and their fundamental role in our ecosystems through lavish full-color photographs and lively narrative. From the Giant Golden Crowned Flying Fox, a megabat with a wingspan of more than five feet, to the aptly named Bumblebee Bat, the world's smallest mammal, the number and diversity of bat species have proven to be both rich and underestimated. Nocturnal, fast-flying, and secretive, bats are difficult to observe and catalog. This richly illustrated handbook presents bats' evolution, biology, behavior, and ecology. It offers in-depth profiles of four hundred megabats and microbats and detailed summaries of all the species identified to date. Complete with an introduction exploring bats' natural history and their unique adaptations to life on the wing, Bats includes close-up images of these animals' delicate and intricate forms and faces, each shaped by evolution to meet the demands of an extraordinarily specialized life."Going far beyond the practical value of a guidebook, this is an important update to bat literature and one to savor, containing a wonder on nearly every page and proving that bats are indeed 'intelligent, curious, comical, even essential animals."
—Library Journal, starred review
MARIANNE TAYLOR is a writer, illustrator, and photographer who has worked in natural history publishing at Bloomsbury Publishing and Birdwatch magazine and has authored more than a dozen books. MERLIN TUTTLE is an American ecologist, conservationist, and wildlife photographer who specializes in bat ecology, behavior, and conservation. His most recent book is The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals.