The Secret Lives of Bats

hmhco.com / The Secret Lives of Bats

Tuttle has dedicated his life to changing the preconceived notions about bats, and his book, The Secret Lives of Bats, is a personal story that documents the many reasons to appreciate, rather than fear, bats.

A lifetime of adventures with bats around the world reveals why these special and imperiled creatures should be protected rather than feared.
Merlin’s new book, The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammals, was released on October 20, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Amazon featured it on its top-10 book list in non-fiction, and it received uniformly outstanding reviews, including in The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Huffington Post, National Geographic Book Talk and Nature. Sharing highlights from a lifetime of adventure and discovery, Merlin takes readers to the frontiers of research and discovery, replacing fear of the unknown with a profound appreciation for these long neglected but essential animals. More than 50 media interviews have reached tens of millions of people worldwide with his message about bats.

ISBN-13/ EAN: 9780544382275
ISBN-10: 0544382277
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 10/20/2015

From menacing moonshiners and armed bandits to charging elephants and man-eating tigers, Merlin Tuttle has stopped at nothing to find and protect bats on every continent they inhabit. Enamored of bats ever since discovering a colony in a cave as a boy, Tuttle saw how effective photography could be in persuading people not to fear bats, and he has spent his career traveling the world to document them.

Few people realize how sophisticated and intelligent bats are. Tuttle shares research showing that frog-eating bats can identify frogs by their calls, that vampire bats have a social order similar to that of primates, and that bats have remarkable memories. Bats also provide enormous benefits by eating crop pests, pollinating plants, and carrying seeds needed for reforestation. They save farmers billions of dollars annually and are essential to a healthy planet.

Sharing highlights from a lifetime of adventure and discovery, Tuttle takes us to the frontiers of bat research and conservation and forever changes the way we see these poorly understood yet fascinating creatures.

• Bat Faces Are Vast and Varied