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Description
"[A] wonderful book." ―Nature "A mind-opening adventure." ―Natural History 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. Yossi Yovel, an ecologist and a neurobiologist, is passionate about deciphering the secrets of bats, including using AI to decipher their communication. In The Genius Bat, he brings to vivid life these amazing creatures as well as the obsessive and sometimes eccentric people who study them–bat scientists. 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. Read more
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Publication date : October 7, 2025
Language : English
Print length : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 1250378443
ISBN-13 : 46
Item Weight : 1.19 pounds
Dimensions : 6.65 x 1.05 x 9.5 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #99,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #44 in Biology of Mammals #91 in Natural History (Books)
#44 in Biology of Mammals:
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Hardcover
Our great granddaughter loves this book.
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2026 by Joan M. Peay
Format: Hardcover
Great book. Scientific but easy to understand. Lots of interesting information. Highly recommended.
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2025 by snowbaron
Format: Hardcover
Written for curious nonscientists in conversational English, this is a highly readable and informative book about how bats survive and thrive in various environments. Enjoying it.
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2025 by Chaiam Yankel's bubbie
Format: Hardcover
Absolutely wonderfully done
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2025 by Valerie Robertson
Format: Hardcover
[Review based on the uncorrected digital version on NetGalley] This is a wonderful book. Written by Yossi Yovel, a professor of biology at Tel Aviv University who has made an academic career out of the subject of its title, the book is at once engaging popular science book, a history of its field, and personal memoir. Each chapter focuses on a particular species or group of bats, their evolved features and behaviors, the (often wild, but sometimes urban) natural habitats they live in, as well as the larger biological concepts at play. The distinctive capabilities of bats, namely flight and echolocation, are treated in depth, but in a manner that is accessible to nonspecialists and thoroughly spellbinding if you have even the slightest curiosity about how the natural world works. The broader biological topics, such as ecology, sociality, perception and neurobiology, and evolutionary dynamics (such as the predator/prey arms races) are explained and illustrated beautifully. What makes the book more than just a fascinating popular science monograph, however, is the human dimension. Science is always also a social phenomenon and a personal undertaking for the people involved. Yovel’s narrative skillfully interleaves the science with historical background and autobiographical anecdotes. A typical chapter neatly wraps three narrative threads: an exposition of scientific questions and findings, a historical account of how knowledge on the relevant topics was uncovered, often involving rivalries between pioneers in the field, and a personal account of how the author has himself contributed to the field, first as a student, later as a postdoctoral researcher and professor. The personal anecdotes often include vivid accounts of personal interactions with colleagues and said scientific pioneers, or bits of travelogue about expeditions to the remote habitats of various bat populations. The message that comes across is clear: biological science is not just the dry accumulation of knowledge, but a human endeavor full of excitement, disappointments, and interpersonal engagements and relationships. The writing never tries to dumb down the science, is easygoing and never academic or didactic in tone, and is far from dry. In fact, the only dry aspect is the humor that is sprinkled throughout, such as when Yovel describes how eminent bat researcher Gareth Jones lands on bats as his eventual subject of investigation. While studying birds, he accidentally catches some bats in his net: “It was his first bat experience. It’s not clear who fell into whose net, Jones or the bat.” With this book, Yovel entices the reader to get caught up in his own mesh of narratives about bats and bat scientists, with most pleasurable results.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2025 by Andreas Stolcke
Format: Kindle
Lookit! It's freaking bats! There's no need to get batty: everyone knows there's just something wonderful and special about bats. Making up about 20% of mammalian species, bats are among the most diverse and most successful groups of animals, all in one adorable furry package. Coming in a variety of shapes, colors, sizes, dietary predilections, longevity, and habitats, the planet's only flying mammals have always risen to the sole challenge of the universe: adapt and survive. Taking readers under his wing as a long-practicing ecologist and neurobiologist, Yossi Yovel brings the incredible world of bats to life, following them - and the passionate, eccentric chiropterologists who love them - across land, sea, forests, and even time and space in an eye (ear?)-opening and entertaining account of everyone's favorite night mammal. Bats have gotten a terrible rap over the last few years for what should be obvious reasons, and it's high time people fall back in love with them - this book is a great place to start! These small (and often quite large) flying mammals will capture your heart like so many little bugs (or fish?? Did you know that some bats eat fish??), and you can tell how much fun Yossi has had studying them over his life as he takes readers through centuries of bat research, discoveries, science, and the world of animal research intertwined with lots of tales and bat facts (I am begging the romance girlies to read this book and then write me a series about bat mating rituals and practice). A delectable break from the fictional vampires (sparkles optional), this book about our favorite little bloodsuckers is both informative and entertaining, and will make you want to scout our a bridge or an zoo to go see some of these critters in the flesh immediately.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2025 by Off Service Book Recs
Format: Hardcover
“We can try to imagine what it would be like to fly above the world and use sounds to sense it, but we’ll never know what it’s like to be a bat.” Just last week I was on my way to our neighbor’s house to pick up a borrowed item around dusk, I noticed the bats flying in random patterns over her front yard. As usual for me, I stopped to watch, lost in the hidden beauty, speed and efficiency of the small creatures I rarely think about during the day. When I finally made my way to her front door and mentioned watching the bats, she screamed, “What?!” and cowered behind the door. This isn’t the first time I’ve commented to a friend or neighbor about how much I enjoy watching the bats in the evening in our Florida neighborhood, and not the first time I heard a shocked or disbelieving response. For me, the bats have always been around. I sit on my patio in the mornings watching the birds visit the feeder and the suet cage, so watching the bats is akin to admiring my evening “birds”. As a child in Ohio, urging bats out windows from my grandparents’ farmhouse was common practice. I mean, there was a specific broom upstairs for that purpose. When we traveled by RV out to the western states, we made time to stop at Carlsbad Caverns later in the day to make sure we not only adopted a bat but watched the nightly mass exodus. When I saw the beautiful cover of The Genius Bat by Yossi Yovel on NetGalley, I knew it was a must-read book for me, and I am grateful to NetGalley and to St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy. The Genius Bat is a wonderfully educational book on several aspects of scientific study of bats – sociality, echolocation, evolution, and nature conservation. While I enjoy bats, I have very little knowledge of them, even the local denizens. While most of the bats discussed in the book are far away, I was able to get a feel for the diversity of the species and its behaviors. It learned that not all bats live in colonies nor are all bats monogamous. They are known to share food at times and form friendships. They communicate and are biologically different for various but specific reasons. As a wildlife enthusiast and conservationist, I was most intrigued by the threats to bats and the search for answers to those threats, which include alternative power sources, disease (I was introduced to “white-nose syndrome in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert in 2019) and human development of habitat areas. The book is told through narratives that alternate between the author’s personal research experiences and other historical researchers and their related endeavors. I found all very interesting and the basics about bats in the introduction wonderful, but I really would love to know about the bats closer to home. I realize that’s no easy task given that readers are scattered throughout the world. Perhaps that is a “me” issue, and I need to do a better job of educating myself on the night-time flying mammals in my own neck of the woods but especially as a wildlife advocate, I found it difficult to connect with bats and study challenges in unrelatable places. #thegeniusbat #yossiyovel #yossibatlab #stmartinspress #bookreview #books # bookreviewer #nerdventureswithbooks
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Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2025 by Shannan Powell
Format: Hardcover
A fascinating and accessible treatise on everything you could ever want to know about bats. It somehow reads like a fun travel memoir where you follow captivation and passionate people around the world as they study the adorable flying mammals while still giving you insane amounts of detailed information. I'll probably forget most names of people and types of bats, but I'm walking away with some interesting tidbits about bats and their impact on the world. Delighted thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the educational read!
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Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2025 by nina_chan01