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Sebastian Ritscher

THE GENIUS BAT

Yossi Yovel

The Secret Life of the Only Flying Mammal

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.

This book brings to vivid life these amazing creatures as well as the obsessive and sometime eccentric people who study them. 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.

Yossi Yovel is an ecologist and a neurobiologist a rare combination of disciplines. A professor at Tel-Aviv University and the head of the School of Neuroscience, he has conducted research all around the world, using an arsenal of methods and equipment. His work has been covered by major media outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Economist, NPR, BBC, and National Geographic.
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Published 2025-10-07 by St. Martins Press (US) / Oneworld (UK)

Comments

Fascinating...Yovel clearly explains bats' vital contributions to a healthier planet... and provides an insider view of what motivates scientists to study bats.

Accessible, engaging, and inspiring.

You will never think of bats (or zoologists) in the same way. The book is a masterpiece of story- telling.

Endearing photos of bats show clever adaptations like long tongues In his book The Genius Bat, ecologist Yossi Yovel explains why these mammals are a vital part of ecosystems, pollinating plants and keeping insect populations in check Read more...

Endearing photos of bats show clever adaptations like long tongues...In his book The Genius Bat, ecologist Yossi Yovel explains why these mammals are a vital part of ecosystems, pollinating plants and keeping insect populations in check.

Yovel's enthusiasm for these little creatures is infectious.

What's it like to be a bat? How do they see the world? Read more...

A marvelous book. If you are at all curious about bats and the scientists who study them, this is the book for you.

In this dynamic and informative account of the genius of bats, Yovel's passion for and knowledge of the topic are inspiring and evident throughout.

Czech Republic: Euromedia Group; Israel: Kinneret-Zmora; Italy: Adelphi; Japan: Kawade Shob? Shinsha; Korea: Across; Russia: AST

Yovel is quite an appealing personality, so permit us to introduce him via this YouTube link about bats and AI, which was shown on BBC News (15.6 million subscribers). Read more...

By page eight, I was a confirmed batman... In all this batty marvellousness, nothing intrigues more than the evolutionary 'arms race' between bats and insects... This book, it must be stated, is no dry-as-dust science text. Prof Yossi Yoval is out in jungle, desert and tropical island, the Indiana Jones of chiropterology. It's bonkersly interesting.

Follows the secret lives of these flying creatures, and not least the crazy people who study them. Full of knowledge and amazing details, and written almost like a thriller; the enthusiasm is evident in every sentence.

A love story for the only mammal endowed with the ability to fly. The book is fascinating throughout, and it combines stories of exotic journeys to distant islands that resonate like adventures from world literature.

Yovel's passion and curiosity will leave readers with a greater appreciation for the wonders and mysteries of the bat world. This is a revelation.

Brings the poster-species of Halloween out of the shadows, so we can better appreciate the flying mammal.

How Bats became one of the planet's most successful animals Read more...

In this excellent book, Yovel draws you into the lives of bats. He provides many astonishing details of what bats do and why.