This Halloween, we ask: do these incredible winged creatures deserve their scary reputation?
Did you know that bats make up one in five of all known mammal species?
They’re insanely diverse. Which makes it sad to think that, for many of us, bats are something to be feared: a monsters. A shadow in the night. A Halloween decoration.
They’re so much more to bats than that. That’s what becomes clear from these incredible photos taken by José G Martínez-Fonseca, a Nicaraguan biologist with a particular interest in bats and rodents. He studies how species respond to their environments, and has been part of recent research tracking the presence of different bat species in different parts of Central America.
Martínez-Fonseca’s photos reveal how bats range from the weird, to the cute, to the cute-but-weird. Are they scary? You decide. But you’ll certainly never look at bats the same way again.
Rufous trident bat, Triaenops persicus
Wrinkle-faced bat, Centurio senex
Tent-making bat, Uroderma bilobatum
Spectral bat, Vampyrum spectrum
Elegant myotis, Myotis elegans
Long-eared myotis, Myotis evotis
Long-legged bat, Macrophyllum macrophyllum
Miller´s Mastiff Bat, Molossus pretiosus
Jamaican fruit-eating bat, Artibeus jamaicensis
Little yellow-shouldered bat, Sturnira lilium
Hoary bat, Lasiurus cinereus
Honduran white bat, Ectophylla alba
Hairy-legged vampire bat, Diphylla ecaudata
Great roundleaf bat, Hipposideros armiger
Greater western mastiff bat, Eumops perotis
Greater fishing bat, Noctilio leporinus
Greater spear-nosed bat, Phyllostomus hastatus
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Broad-eared bat, Nyctinomops laticaudatus
Geoffroy´s tailless bat, Anoura geoffroyi
Fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus
Wagner´s bonneted bat, Eumops glaucinus
Wrinkle-faced bat, Centurio senex
Spotted bat, Euderma maculatum
Allen’s big-eared bat, Idionycteris phyllotis
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