Play Book Tag discussion

The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals by Merlin Tuttle
4.5 stars (round down to 4)

Y’all, bats are awesome! I lean toward “creepy” over “cute,” I do not necessarily want them to be anywhere near me, and I certainly do not want to venture into a cave at night surrounded by tens of thousands of them. But thank goodness Merlin Tuttle does!

Tuttle caps of decades (and counting!) of bat conservation work with this delightful memoir that is stuffed full of bat facts. This is not a comprehensive account of bats, or even a large percentage of bat species, but is more of a telling of Tuttle’s bat research expeditions, each chapter focusing on one of his many trips around the world to venture off the beaten path and face down peril to learn more about bats, take amazing pictures of them, and endeavor to protect these misunderstood mammals. We learn about Tuttle, the people he meets and befriends, and about the unique characteristics of bats.

I learned so many amazing things about bats! Some eat crazy amounts of crop pests while others pollinate fruits and cacti, most have complex social hierarchies ranging from caring for young to funneling in and out of caves, and frog-eating bats have absolutely astounding co-evolution with frogs. So many bats are small, weighing only ounces, while the rare few have feet-long wingspans. They can fly up to 80 miles an hour, have decorative plumage like birds, and can be trained to eat out of your (certainly not MY) hand within mere minutes.

Tuttle is definitely a throw-back researcher. He seems to have little regard for his health and safety, conducting many solo research expeditions into deep dark caves. Even when he takes research assistants or collaborators with him into the field, he often requires everyone around him to survive on little sleep and take risks in order to get that final piece of data or snap that perfect pic. While, as a scientist, this can annoy me a bit, I have been guilty of it a time or two (who doesn’t want to walk along a slippery boulder-strewn shore in frigid temperatures with a storm quickly approaching in order to observe snail feeding behavior?!) and I also realize that scientists like Tuttle have made major breakthroughs in their field.

The one thing I really wanted from this book? Color photos. Luckily, a quick google of “merlin tuttle bat pics” reveals a massive collection of (mainly) adorable bat photos that were nearly single-handedly responsible for reshaping how people view bats.

Took me 5 years to finally get this book off my TBR, and am so glad I finally picked it up.

Great review. Now I feel bad that we had our attic sealed up to get rid of them. We used to watch them outside at night swooping in the air to eat the mosquitos. They were too small and moved too fast to get a good look at them. I liked that they ate mosquitos, but they left unsightly droppings near our front door, so we had to evict them.

So, is there really such a thing as vampire bats?

As long as you didn’t kill the bats then sealing up the house is okay! They can cause problems to your attic.

There are vampire bats! But, if I am remembering correctly, are limited to South America and feed primarily on cows.

I love bats! What a great find. This book has just gone straight to the TBR.

But maybe I won’t tell my husband - when I read the Soul of an Octopus book (with all the associated Googling and extra research) it ended up with him telling me to Shut Up About F*#^ing Octopuses. And I keep bees, so he has to suffer bee conversations as well. Bats might be the death of our relationship

KateNZ wrote: "I love bats! What a great find. This book has just gone straight to the TBR.

But maybe I won’t tell my husband - when I read the Soul of an Octopus book (with all the associated Googling and extr..."

Bats, octopuses and bees! Kate, you are fearless!

KateNZ wrote: "I love bats! What a great find. This book has just gone straight to the TBR.

But maybe I won’t tell my husband - when I read the Soul of an Octopus book (with all the associated Googling and extr..."

Kate, you are going to want to google the shit out of bats when you are reading this book!

And don't forget to google the Merlin Tuttle photos!

KateNZ wrote: "I love bats! What a great find. This book has just gone straight to the TBR.

But maybe I won’t tell my husband - when I read the Soul of an Octopus book (with all the associated Googling and extr..."

😂