To human eyes, the faces of many bats are horrific and grotesque, like gargoyles come to life. But the many bumps, folds, and ridges found on some bat faces aren't there for show. Most of these structures function during echolocation to deflect or funnel the bat's signals as they bounce off a target, allowing the bat to locate objects above the horizontal plane. Some bats, such as leaf-nosed bats, are named for these facial appendages.
As to the beauty of these ridge-faced bats, it is not only in the eye of the beholder, but also in the sound and scent. Mother bats locate their tiny young by the specific calls and scent of the baby, even amid a nursery colony containing millions of baby bats, sometimes clustered as densely as 500 per square foot. (If bats did admire their babies' facial features, what would they say, "Oh look honey, he has your mother's nose leaves!")
Western big-eared bat
big brown bat
hoary bat
Underwoods mastiff bat (S. Arizona)
leaf-nosed bat (S. California, S. Arizona, S. Nevada)
Next: Build a Better Bat House!
(The information contained in this issue of Colorado's Wildlife Company was accurate at the time of original publication. Situations and circumstances described, staff positions, contact information, and dates of some events may have changed in the interim. Present knowledge and understanding of biological and behavioral facts and information may also be different, now, than presented here.)