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This one started with a random conversation with my son.

Josiah said, “Hey Dad, did you know bats aren’t really blind?”

My immediate reaction was basically, “Wait… what?”

I’ve heard my entire life that bats have poor eyesight and rely on echolocation to “see,” so naturally I wanted to challenge what he had heard. I did a quick Google search expecting to prove the point pretty easily.

Instead, most of what came up at first were Reddit threads and Facebook posts saying bats can actually see pretty well.

That didn’t exactly convince me. 😂

So I decided to dig deeper and look for actual research.

And, as it turns out, the belief I’ve carried around for most of my life was wrong.

Bats are not blind. Many species have functional—and sometimes surprisingly good—vision. Some can detect ultraviolet light, and research suggests that bats often use vision and echolocation together rather than echolocation simply replacing poor eyesight.

In fact, the two senses appear to be useful for different jobs: vision can be better for detecting large or distant features like trees and landscapes, while echolocation is incredibly effective for locating small prey and nearby obstacles. (frontiersin.org, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

That sent me down an interesting rabbit hole and gave me an idea:

How many other “facts” have we heard so many times that we stopped questioning whether they were actually true?

So I’m thinking about turning this into a little series: Common Myths, Verified Facts — taking familiar claims, digging past social media posts and repeated sayings, and seeing what the actual evidence says.

First up:

🦇 MYTH CHECK #1: Are bats basically blind?

Turns out… Josiah was right. 😂

Sources / further reading:
Müller et al. (2009) — research identifying ultraviolet-sensitive cone photoreceptors in bats. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Boonman et al. (2013) — comparison of visual and echolocation detection in bats, showing that the two sensory systems provide different advantages. (frontiersin.org)

Simões et al. (2018) — research examining differences in visual pigments among bat species. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)