Bats of the United States and Canada

by Michael J. Harvey, J. Scott Altenbach, Troy L. Best

Honorable Mention, Popular Science, 2012 PROSE Awards, Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers The only mammals capable of true flight, bats are among the world’s most fascinating creatures. This accessible guide to the forty-seven species of bats found in the United States and Canada captures and explains the amazing diversity of these marvels of evolution. A wide variety of bat species live in the United States and Canada, ranging from the California leaf-nosed bat to the Florida bonneted bat, from the eastern small-footed bat to the northern long-eared bat. The authors provide an overview of bat classification, biology, feeding behavior, habitats, migration, and reproduction. They discuss the ever-increasing danger bats face from destruction of habitat, wind turbines, chemical toxicants, and devastating diseases like white-nose syndrome, which is killing millions of cave bats in North America. Illustrated species accounts include range maps and useful identification tips. Written by three of the world’s leading bat experts and featuring J. Scott Altenbach's stunning photographs, this fact-filled and easy-to-use book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date account of bats in the U.S. and Canada.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Animals, Reference, Science

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten stars! This book was wonderful. Yes, I was browsing the "New Items" shelves at the public library and stumbled upon this and I was like, "Bats! I love bats! Full-colour pictures, awesome!" Totally didn't intend on actually reading it, but I did. I read every word and I learned so very much and it is awesome.

Though, no offense to bat scientists (chiropterologists), but the bats in this book have the most boring of names. Gray Bat. Cave Bat. Big Brown Bat. Arizona Bat. California Bat. Lesser Long-nosed Bat. C'mon people, they are amazing creatures and they should have amazing names. For example, the Lesser Long-nosed Bat is a pollinator of agave plants. And agave gives us tequila. And tequila gives us margaritas. And margaritas give us happiness. So, I propose these bats now be called "Bats of Happiness" or at least, "Margarita Bats."

I highly recommend this book.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, listen up: you would not BELIEVE how obsessed with bats I was as a kid. I read Kenneth Oppel’s Silverwing at six years old and pretty much never looked back. The highlight of my young life was getting to touch a bat at some event that I don’t even remember other than that perfect moment. So THANK YOU to these wonderful authors and researchers who have helped me to revive my obsession for just a few days. Seriously, reading this book I could not imagine how I ever went the chemistry route instead of straight-up becoming a bat scientist. Then I remembered that one bio course I clawed my way through, screaming, and thought, “Oh yeah, that’s why.”

Anyway, I thought that I would get bored with this book partway through, when they started getting into the specifics of individual species, but NOPE. I started keeping a few notes of cool things, but about 10 bats in, I realized, heck, they’re all pretty special. I now have a small section of a notebook dedicated to 1+ cool facts about each of the 47 bat species in the United States and Canada. I regret nothing.

In summary: A++ book, bats are cool, and we need to protect the little dudes before it’s too late.

PS: My favourite was the Jamaican fruit-eating bat. Did you know that, when captured, they can produce a distress call that induces mobbing behaviour in their friends? Amazing.

[Lvautier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gives me the opportunity to share a book orientated public service. Via publicbooks.org quite a few university publishers are offering a selection of books for free during the corona virus shut in time. Some till the end of April others until the end of june. Downloading can be a bit cumbersome because you do it by chapter. For me it is worth it because I like to read on my ereader on the couch, not on my computer. This book consisted of about 45 short (1-4 pages) chapters followed by a lot of clicks that gave you species specific info and some cute bat pictures. I was going to skip those but the info was interesting and some of the pics were really cute. But all of that clicking meant that downloading would have been quite tedious. I did download a book on alligators though.
Bats are fascinating creatures and if I was socializing I am pretty sure I would be relating some of the things I learned. For instance Some species of bats give birth to young that are 40% of the weight of the mother. This would make a cool 'assignment' for a young person.

https://muse.jhu.edu/book/10333

[Stephanie Littig · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most interesting bat books I have seen! There was so much great information in the beginning about what they eat, their biology, hibernation, etc. then they go on to talk about the different bats and where they live in the U.S and Canada. The main bats we see in Iowa are the big brown bat, hoary bat, little brown bat, Northern long-eared bat, Indiana bat, evening bat, and the Eastern pipistrelle bat. The pictures were actual pictures of each type of bat. This was fascinating! I loved it!

[Janie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bats are pollinators! Bats have tails! (Somehow I didn't really catch on to that before. Maybe because they're webbed -- part of the wing system.) Many bats have special colonies for pregnant bat-mommas and bat-babies! These are things I learned!

I already knew about white-nose syndrome. I already knew that bats are misunderstood. I didn't realize though that people are so afraid of them. Fear makes people do stupid, harmful things. I also didn't realize how directly insecticides are harming bats, but it makes a lot of sense; most of them are insectivores, so their food is being poisoned. We're really shooting ourselves in the foot [HA i mistyped that first as "shooting ourselves in the food"] with our poisoning the world. Our natural pollinators bug predators are dying off because we're killing them with our bug poison. So we have more bugs and "need" more poison.

I got a little bit depressed reading this book. But I got impressed, too, by its night photography.

[Carolyn Roys · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been batty about books but what lots of people don't know is that I'm batty about bats. This books is well done looking at the facts about bats then moving into a picture section listing each bat, where it resides, what it eats, size, etc. much like many bird books do. I wish I had the funds to go seeking all these bats in the US but so far I can say I've only see three of these in the wild. I hope people will wise up and understand their benefit before they are gone. Can't imagine how horrible our world would be with the bugs they eat in it if the bats disappear. Bully for Bats!

[Betsy Curlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for the amateur naturalist or the bat enthusiast. It covers bat species in Canada and the United States in good detail, including native range, diet, and other pertinent facts. The color pictures make it easy to learn and distinguish between individual species.