The Bat's Echo

A revelatory trip through the vibrant world of bats—and their unexpected yet essential lessons for the future of our species. Bats have a branding problem. These extraordinary animals are also some of Earth’s most misunderstood. Now, bat scientist Sonja Vernes uncovers the many reasons they should be our new best friends. The Bat's Echo is the first book to reveal the intricate links between bats and humans. Bats are vital to the health of our planet and to human health alike. Their mastery of echolocation and impressive lifespans can help us navigate hearing loss, aging, and disease in humans. And that’s just the start. In this globe-trotting tour, we follow Vernes to Mexico, where tequila bats pollinate agave plants; to sea caves in Cyprus, where Schreibers’s long-fingered bats hold clues that may help prevent future pandemics; and to Vernes’s own lab, where she studies a pale-nosed bat colony to better understand childhood speech disorders. To these and other human quandaries, bats hold the keys. Vernes paints a portrait of bats that we’ve never seen—as a bellwether for our well-being and a singular species to behold. We all know self-proclaimed “dog people” and “cat people.” In a uniquely informative and entertaining style, The Bat's Echo shows that, whether we know it or not, we are all “bat people.”