this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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Bats

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Bats are cool

Bats are the only true flying mammals. There are over 1,400 species of bats, and they can be found on nearly every part of the planet. Not only are they cute, they are also important...

Studying how bats use echolocation has helped scientists develop navigational aids for the blind. Without bats’ pollination, seed dispersal, and pest control we wouldn’t have bananas, avocados, mangoes, agave, or cacao… that’s right, bats bring us tequila and chocolate!

Found a bat in need of help?

Celebrate bats with us!

Our community's mascot is Baxter. Baxter is an Egyptian fruit bat that was cruelly kept alone and confined to a small cage for 12 years before being rescued by a bat sanctuary. You can read the full story by clicking on his name.

Our rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Everyone should feel welcome here. Hateful or bigoted language will not be tolerated.

Don’t post anything a fruit bat would not approve of.

Please don't hate on bats in this community (this includes all of your edgy covid humor).

Bats don’t like spam.

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[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] ickplant@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago
[–] Valsa@mander.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I like all these goofy guys you post. Does the pointy nose perform a function or is it just stylish?

[–] ickplant@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Thanks for asking! That thing - called a nose leaf - indeed performs a function. This species of bat hunts and communicates by echolocation calls, which they emit from their nose rather than the mouth. It basically focuses outgoing ultrasonic sound waves into a tight, highly directional beam, preventing the outgoing sound blast from overwhelming the bat's own ears.

The nose leaf also has serrated edges and is covered in fine hair. Those help the bat pick up insects and small invertebrates directly off foliage while hovering over dense rainforest vegetation. And this particular kind of nose leaf is unique to this bat species!

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose-leaf And more: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011893