Description
Book SynopsisBats have long been the focus of fascination, and sometimes fear: they move faultlessly through the darkness and spend the day hanging upside down in gloomy caverns and cracks – most at home where humans are least comfortable. Bats also represent a hugely important, numerous and varied group, accounting for 20% of all mammal species worldwide. Covering their biodiversity, ecology and natural history, A Miscellany of Bats offers a hoard of insights into the lives of these creatures.
For over a quarter of a century Brock Fenton and the late Jens Rydell collaborated on projects involving bats. Here they bring together a collection of stories and anecdotes about bat research, brought to life by stunning photographs of these animals in action. Key topics include flight and echolocation, diet and roosting habits, and the complex social lives of bats. Jens and Brock also address issues of conservation and the interactions between bats and people, ranging from matters of disease to bats’ role as symbols, and our fixation with vampire bats. They explore how echolocation and flight shape batkind, from their appearance to where they go and why. Overall, this book is an entertaining and personal vision of bats’ central place in the universe. More than 150 species are covered.
Trade ReviewA Miscellany of Bats is a well-written and interesting—and often absorbing—book, in which the authors convey their enthusiasm for studying this unique group of animals...Difficult concepts are simplified and the very readable text is largely accessible to general readers who might be interested in bats but have no particular background in either biology or natural history.
-- Danny A. Brass, NSS News
Fascinating and wonderful...I can't find any fault with this book. And would recommend it to anyone, with just about any level of existing knowledge of bats.
-- Al Milano, Bat Detecting blog
...a thoroughly readable book of batty facts, and batty mysteries.
-- Tony Atkinson, Mammal News
If you have an interest in bats (and what naturalist does not?), this book is a good read and a very accessible way into bat research... The book is written by renowned experts and with world class photography and is a valuable addition to a natural history book collection.
-- David Skydmore, British Naturalist
It is not just that A Miscellany of Bats provides facts and figures, it is that there is so much more to know about bats than most of us realize, and both Brock Fenton and the late Jens Rydell convey that knowledge to the lay audience, the text filtering the multifaceted and often highly technical aspects of bat study through the lens of accessibility to the non-scientist.
-- Animal Alliance of Canada
Three things set A Miscellany of Bats apart. For one, the authors are outstanding photographers. The images in this book are second to none. Second, there is a lovely exploration of the roles bats play in human cultures, and much of what is covered here is not in those other volumes.
-- Daniel Riskin, University of Toronto, Mississauga * Quarterly Review of Biology *
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgements
1. Introducing bats
Wings and size
Blind as a bat
Catching and identifying bats
Marking and tagging
Brock’s initiation
Jens’ start
Box: What on Earth?
2. Bat wings and flight
Wing anatomy
White wings
How fast do bats fly?
Drinking
Flying antics
Box: Colour in bats
3. Seeing with sound
The perils of generalization
Basic echolocation
Why echolocate?
Echolocation and the faces of bats
Box: Beam control and bite power
4. Echolocation: a window onto bat behaviour
Biologists as eavesdroppers on bats
Insect prey
Bat communication
Air traffic control
Box: Echolocation and foraging
5. What bats eat, part 1
Learning how much a bat consumes
Some bats eat birds
Versatility
What insects do bats eat?
Specialized hunting
Trawling
Box: Diets of bats
6. What bats eat, part 2
Fruit-eating species
Bats and flowers
Box: The curious case of bananas
7. Vampire bats
8. Where bats occur and where they roost
Temperature
Bat roosts
Box: Patterning in bats
Lingering challenges
Bats up north
Box: Bat boxes
9. Social lives of bats
Reproduction
What is a colony of bats?
Food availability and social patterns
Box: Observational learning
10. How bats use space
Box: Bats get around
11. Threats to bats
Predators
Mishaps
Parasites
Wind turbines
Light pollution
A world without bats?
Global change
Box: Keeping bats away
12. Bats and people
Attitudes towards bats
Bats and disease
Bats as symbols
13. Bats as beings
A last word to the bats
Cast of bats
Notes
Index
