I love bats but don’t know as much about them as I might like, and I learned a lot from this book (Chapter 11 had a rather … interesting … revelation - of the subject of a paper by Gareth Jones). I received an Uncorrected Digital Galley from NetGalley (for which I am grateful but sad it didn’t have any photos … “[see photo insert]” instead of a photo).

Amidst all of the great information in here, we are treated to a lot of temporal (and geographical shifts) - the author talks about something in his research, then jumps to one of the famous-to-the-world-of-chiroptery … and interesting if only to me, that word is oddly not commonly used … and his (almost always male) research but we don’t always find out when that is happening until a later published paper is mentioned and dated. Then back again. I like learning about niche research and even niche-ier researchers. “[Gareth] Jones has served as a Ph.D. advisor to some sixty doctoral students (that's a lot in our world), and his research spans a huge range of fields— perhaps a wider purview than any other bat researcher.” And I was quite pleased to learn of bat conservation efforts. I lived in Texas for 14 years (not from there, never from there) and made the trip to Austin to see the Congress Avenue Bridge bats at dusk. I did not know that conservation was not the goal some forty years ago when the bats took up residence under the arches. Thank you, Merlin Tuttle for changing that.

Now, I thought some of the casual drops betrayed the “genius” moniker - one researcher thought he had eaten a bat when a child? Others were shooting bats to examine their stomach contents? It’s not all like that, mostly not all, really, but those examples and a few others were presented not in literary shock; rather, “oh, well, stuff happens”.

And then,
“His [Gerry Carter] great dream is to create a "cheater" vampire [bat, of course] who never reciprocates, never returns a favor, not even to her friends. He expects that this type of individual will gradually begin to lose any social connections that are not reciprocated. The observation of such partner losing behavior should convince anyone who is still skeptical about reciprocal altruism in vampires.”

That seems rather cruel. In so many of the stories we are shown that bats have (at least some) intelligence, why do that to them?

“As a bat researcher, you can’t lose your cool when bitten. Briskly shaking your hand, as the brain implores you to do, may cause the bat to flee but it won't advance your research. You have to remain calm as your finger is crushed between the bat's sharp fangs and try to patiently extract it. One of the oldest techniques is to blow strongly on the bat's face, and then pull your hand away quickly when it relaxes its bite for a moment.”

Don’t shake your hand. Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon. (Seriously… good tip!)

For those who don’t science: “Contrary to popular conception, scientists rarely decide to precisely reenact an experiment conducted in another laboratory and whose results have already been published. Such an experiment is usually considered a waste of time and resources. If the results of the original experiment are reproduced, then there's nothing new to report, and the original researchers will forever retain credit for it. If the results are not reproduced, this sometimes is tantamount to a declaration of war, and few scientists are keen on launching a war whose results are unknown.”

This is wild: “The fact that bats change the rate of their emissions when zeroing in on insects was a strong indication of the use of echolocation for hunting purposes. In fact, this ability to change the rate is one of the tools that makes them such efficient hunters. It enables bats to adjust the rate of information collection to the task at hand.”
Admirable. Reduce the rate of incoming information, along with bat adaptation resulting in Doppler Shift Compensation

Good book.

I work giving tours of caves, so I know the importance of bats to the ecology. Bats are our friends, but because of Hollywood, people don't understand them. This book is a good one for those who want to know more about our flying mammal friends. It does have some scientific terminology, but the author does a good job of explaining those technical terms..

The only thing I found confusing was his jumping back and forth in time and between his research and that of others.. Perhaps if he had made smoother transitions it would have helped. At least there are extra spaces and graphics separating the histories.

Since I had an advanced, pre-publication version, I could not see the pictures of the various bats described, but I imagine those would help the reader know what the bats are like.

The Genius Bat by Yossi Yovel is an excellent book for a general readership with an interest in bats, or nature in general.

For the past few decades bats have become more appreciated, though admittedly not fully. More people find them interesting than when I was young and most of the uneasiness is likely due to the difficulty in truly observing, for non-researchers, bats in a way that lets us wrap our minds around them visially. You can see groups roosting, or they are zooming around, which can make some people understandably skittish. Most of us who have knowingly lived near bats (I say knowingly because most people don't realize how many bats live in their vicinity) come to appreciate them as wonders of nature, even if we don't understand a lot about how they live.

This book goes a long way toward helping us understand them, which means more likely to coexist with them rather than exterminate them. After finishing this book, I was surprised about how much I learned. I'll try to explain what I mean. First, the writing discusses the science of bats, but in plain language with plenty of analogies. We also experience different research trips, each with a specific species and goal in mind. Much of the science is mentioned casually as the foundation for each trip, so we don't feel like we are getting a lecture, just the background for a trip. Finally, all of the stories and shorter anecdotes keeps the book about the interaction of humans, bats, and our shared environment. So the science seems less "out there somewhere" and more "somewhere nearby."

If you're prone, like me, to research a little further, there are a lot of great avenues that are mentioned in the book, though more as explanations than explicit suggestions for your own research. From the beginning I went to Wilson's book on sociobiology and found myself wrapped up in the early debates, and continuing to this day, on the applicability to humans. But there are many works cited as well as mention of various species and locations, so you can find both general articles as well as scientific literature on any that really pique your interest.

Highly recommended for the general reader who enjoys learning about science and nature but doesn't want something that feels like a lecture class. This would be ideal for someone starting out in science and thinking about what path to take. It gives some ideas not just for bat research but how one can turn their interests and curiosity into legitimate areas to study. Giving this book to a high school student might just help them decide what they want to do.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book and found it overall dry and more like a text book than I was expecting. I think this will be a great book for those who are particularly interested in bats but it just wasn’t for me.

The Genius Bat
We all “know” what bats are, but do we really? How many kinds? What size? What do they eat? Where do they live? Are they blind? Yossi Yovel tells more than we thought we knew about the intelligent bat, and adds tidbits about other animals as he does so (did you know grasshoppers have ears on their front legs, and that walrus penis bones are 2 feet long)? He includes tales of expeditions to many parts of the world as he studies bats. Many bats migrate, even nightly, and many are endangered. At times the details of echolacation are a bit too detailed, but the story is still fascinating. While written for adult audiences, high school and upper elementary aged students will also enjoy this book (I will be giving it to my 12 and 16 year old grandchildren for Christmas).

This book contained many interesting facts about different species of bats, their use of echolocation, altruistic feeding habits among the vampire bat species that owing to their high metabolism must eat frequently and can starve within a day if they haven’t fed. The downside of this book that these nuggets of interesting information and a little of the science behind how this information was obtained is interspersed by a who’s who in the world of biologists and others who have done work in their field with a mini biography of each one, their mentors, trivia such as what the author ate for dinner when he was fed up with his usual fare and a whole host of irrelevant information that does not aid the reader in understanding bat biology, which is why I wanted to read this book. I made it about 2/3 of the way through before I gave up.
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a fan of bats and used to rehabilitate them when I did wildlife rescue. I was excited to read this nonfiction book about them. It was fascinating to learn about species I've never heard of. There were times the book was a little too dry but otherwise, it was informative.

I enjoyed this book. While it was the story of bats, it was also a story about people; about the author and about other scientists working with bats. The book shows the interconnectivity of science and how one person’s work builds on another. There was a lot about the author’s journey, which I loved. The writing is highly conversational with a considerable amount of humour. There were great anecdotes that had me chuckling. Overall, I loved this book. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance reader copy.

I absolutely love bats, and this was such a fascinating exploration of their behavior and way of life. Very informative book that I hope will inspire a love of bats in other people.

very informative and easy to follow and understand! I look forward to reading more from Yossi Yovel about the world

Love the cover.
I was surprised at how many pages there are in this book. I didn’t realize how much information there is about Bats out there. It would be great for a reference point for art, film, and theater projects.
This would be a great book for classrooms, it has a lot of depth when it comes to bats that I haven’t seen in other books about these flying creatures. And the author has an interesting background which he shares a bit about.

I have loved bats since I was a kid, but I've always found it difficult to learn more about them. Researching online, I get the same facts I learned as a kid, just the basics about the fascinating animals. My niece, who is six, now loves bats and I found myself once again wanting to find more information so I could share it with her. When I spotted this book, I knew I had to read it, and I'm so glad I did! I loved the historical aspect of learning about research done over decades by dedicated scientists and bat-lovers! I like how it switches from the past to the present and connects the research and knowledge in the field. Every chapter was fascinating and provided new information which I can't wait to share with my niece and anyone else who will listen! This book isn't recommended for young kids, but can provide some great information to adults who can then share the best bits with kids who want to learn more about the animals!

Engaging and informative. A recommended purchase for collections where nature nonfiction is popular.

A fantastic and informative book. Finding out about how all different types of bats live, eat, and procreate is amazing. The studies done really bring the history and future lives of bats to reality. Bats are curious creatures and great for our natural habitat and environment. We need to as a society encourage them and help them to survive.

Yovel masterfully combines rigorous scientific research with compelling storytelling. He takes readers on a global journey—from rainforests to deserts, from remote guesthouses in Thailand to museum drawers in New York—introducing them to the dedicated scientists who study these fascinating creatures. Through vivid anecdotes and meticulous detail, Yovel paints a picture of bats not as mere flying mammals but as intelligent beings with intricate social structures and behaviors

This book was such a fun read! I love bats and they're super underappreciated, so this book was right up my alley. I really hope that people will read this book and start caring about bats more. They're so important!

The author is an ecologist and a neurobiologist, so he definitely knows his stuff about bats, but he's also a surprisingly good and engaging writer. The book was fast paced and very readable.

I think people who don't know much about bats would learn a lot from this book, but even people like me who already like bats can learn some new things. It's clear that a lot of research went into this book.

Bats are just so cool and adorable, it was so fun reading a book from someone who was passionate about them.

This was a very well done non-fiction book about bats. I think the author did a nice job of weaving in a little narrative of himself and other researchers and the places that they went to and what they were looking for and how they did their research. There were a few dry spots where some of the information went above my head, but that’s not a book problem, that is simply the limitations of my brain. I am no scientist. A very informative and enjoyable read!

I love bats, and this was so much fun to read. I love that we really dig into more of the scientific nature of bata.

A insightful and delightful read into the lives of bats. Told from the world's leading expert in bats, this was such a fun read. I really loved the way the author broke up different sections and discussed the variety of bats as well as how they behave. It's a fun read and one I would recommend for anyone who is looking to read more about bats!

Release Date: October 14, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*