United States
£ GBP
From the Giant Golden Crowned Flying Fox, a megabat with a wingspan of over five feet, to the aptly named Bumblebee Bat, the world's smallest mammal, the number and diversity of bat species is proving to be very rich and vastly underestimated. Nocturnal, fast-flying, and secretive, their behaviours are extremely difficult to observe and catalog. This lavishly illustrated handbook offers in-depth profiles of 300 megabats and microbats and detailed summaries of all the species identified to date. An endlessly fascinating guide with a hefty introduction exploring their natural history and unique adaptations to life on the wing, Bats includes close-up images of these animals' delicate, intricate and sometimes grotesque forms and faces, each shaped by evolution to meet the demands of an extraordinarily specialized life.
Foreword 6
Introduction 8
Bat Research 10
What is a Bat? 12
Evolution 16
Diversity 19
Biology 22
Behavior 30
Ecology 44
Bats & People 48
About this Book 57
Yangochiroptera accounts 58
Myzopodidae
Emballonuridae
Nycteridae
Furipteridae
Mormoopidae
Mystacinidae
Natalidae
Noctilionidae
Phyllostomidae
Thyropteridae
Cistugidae
Miniopteridae
Molossidae
Vespertilionidae
Yinpterochiroptera accounts 298
Pteropodidae
Craseonycteridae
Hipposideridae
Megadermatidae
Rhinolophidae
Rhinonycteridae
Rhinopomatidae
Index of Scientific Names 388
Index of Common Names 397
Acknowledgments & Biographies 400
Marianne Taylor is a freelance writer, illustrator, photographer and editor. Her interest in natural history began from an extremely early age, as she became passionately interested in first butterflies and then birds, then wildlife in general. As the daughter of two librarians, one of whom later became a secondhand bookseller, she was as bookish as she was animal-obsessed. She worked for seven years in natural history publishing, first in the natural history department of Bloomsbury Publishing, and later for Birdwatch magazine. She began a new career as a freelance writer in 2007, and since then has written more than a dozen books for adults and children on a range of natural history subjects. Her previous work includes RSPB British Birds of Prey (A&C Black), Dragonflight (Bloomsbury), and The Nature Book (Michael O'Mara).
"[...] Meshing deft scientific text with Tuttle’s sumptuous images, it’s a superb introduction to the baroque morphologies and flying prowess of these beguiling beasts."
– Nature 567, 459 (2019)
