The Genius Bat: The Secret Life of the Only Flying Mammal

By Yossi Yovel

An awe-inspiring tour of bat world by the world's leading expert

With nearly 1500 species, bats account for more than twenty percent of mammalian species. The most successful and most diverse group of mammals, bats come in different sizes, shapes, and colors, from the tiny bumblebee bat to the giant golden-crowned flying fox. Some bats eat fruit and nectar; others eat frogs, scorpions, or fish. Vampire bats feed on blood. Bats are the only mammals that can fly; their fingers have elongated through evolution to become wings with a unique, super-flexible skin membrane stretched between them. Their robust immune system is one of the reasons for their extreme longevity. A tiny bat can live for forty years.

Yossi Yovel, an ecologist and a neurobiologist, is passionate about deciphering the secrets of bats, including using AI to decipher their communication. In The Genius Bat, he brings to vivid life these amazing creatures as well as the obsessive and sometimes eccentric people who study them-bat scientists. From muddy rainforests to star-covered night deserts, from guest houses in Thailand to museum drawers full of fossils in New York, this is an eye-opening and entertaining account of a mighty mammal.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250378443
• ISBN13: 9781250378446
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Bats for bats!

I went into this read knowing that bats were my friends because they eat the evil predators known to the unwary as MOSQUITOS, sleep upside down in the day, prowl around looking for food at night, and someone I know used to build a lot of bathouses. Now I am a lot smarter about bats (but they still eat mosquitos) their habits, peculiarities, and how they are able to take their singular place in the ecosystem AND the zoological world. Fascinating for this geek and for lots of non-geeks as well. This is a book easily read by the general public (and fun, too!). It is a really amazing study that I have now preordered for family (besides, I want to see the photos). I requested and received a temporary unedited digital galley from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Pub Date Oct 07, 2025 *****review #BookBub #goodreads #libraryThing #thestorygraph #TheGeniusBat by #YossiYovel @stmartinspress @NetGalley #onlyflyingmammal #NonFiction #bats #ecobiology #echolocation #manyspecies #anecdotes