Meet the World’s Most Adorable Bat Species
Bats are amazing creatures. There are more than 1,400 species of bats in the world, and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are some very large bats with wingspans larger than the average human. Then there are small bats measuring less than the size of the average human hand. But which bat species are the cutest?
Here are some of our picks of the cutest bats in the world.
15 Of The Cutest Bats In The World
Honduran White Bat (Ectophylla alba)
If you’re ever lucky enough to visit Central America and see a group of these beautiful Honduras white bats clinging to the underside of a leaf, be sure to take a moment to appreciate their unique cuteness!
These tiny bats measure less than 2 inches in body and less than 4 inches in the wingspan. They are found in the rainforests of Honduras and neighbouring countries in Central America. They like to roost in the leaves of trees, in which they make ’tents’ by cutting through the ribs of the leaves with their teeth. Much of their diet is made up of eating figs.
The Honduras White Bat is one of only three known species where the pelage is all white. Other notable features include a bright yellow nose and ears, with yellow-orange lips. The Honduran white bat is a relatively quiet bat, and typically emits soft chirps and squeaks when it communicates with others in its colony.
Egyptian Fruit Bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus)
These medium sized fruit bats are found mainly in Egypt, as their name suggests, but they can also live in parts of the Arabian Peninsula and populations are also found around many areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. They usually prefer forested areas, but they can also handle a bit of aridity in the desert.
The Egyptian fruit bat is a social creature, and typically lives in colonies of up to 100 individuals, but can also be found in colonies into the thousands. It’s rare that a bat can use both regular vision and echolocation to find their food, but the Egyptian Fruit Bat is one of the exceptions that is gifted with both.
Males are larger than females, and as adults, can reach around 5.9 inches across the body, and average around 24 inches across the wingspan. Both sexes have similar coloration in their soft and slick fur.
Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus)
The Little Brown Bat is a mouse-eared microbat, found in North America. It is a close relative to many of the other mouse-eared bats in North America, including the Indiana bat and Arizona myotis. They are about 3-4 inches long and have a wingspan of about 8-10 inches. They are brown in color and have a short, sleek coat.
Little brown bats are insectivores. They eat a variety of spiders and insects, including mosquitoes, moths, and beetles. They can consume up to half their own body weight in insects each night!
They tend to live in colonies up to around 10,000 but they can be much larger than this when hibernating together.
White-nose syndrome haws been particularly unkind to little brown bat, responsible for much of the massive population loss over the last two decades, resulting in the species now being considered endangered.
They also have to worry about predators such as raptors and owls like the great horned owl, as well as opportunistic hunters like raccoons. As females only five birth to an average of one baby per year, it will take some time for populations to recover if they are ever given a chance.
Peter’s Dwarf Epauletted Fruit Bat (Micropteropus pusillus)
The Peter’s Dwarf Epauletted Fruit Bat is one of the cutest bat species in the world. This little bat has a fluffy coat of fur, big cute brown eyes and a sweet face.
The coat of these bats contain white tuffs at the proximal end of their ears and much like the epaulettes often seen on military uniforms, these bats have white tufts of fur that grow on their shoulders.
This bat is found around many Central African countries, where it lives in trees and bushes. It feeds on fruit, nectar, and insects. As a nectar eater, it is also an important pollinator of the plants from which it eats.
The population of the Peter’s Dwarf Epauletted Fruit Bat is not considered to be in any state of concern.
Spotted Bat (Euderma maculatum)
The Spotted Bat (Euderma maculatum) is a small, brown bat with three distinctive white spots that break up the black fur on its back. It is one of the cutest bat species in the world and is found in western North America. Spotted bats are active during the day and feed mainly on insects, particularly grasshoppers and moths.
It can grow up to 12 cm long with a wingspan of 35 cm. Its weight averages around 15 g. Its ears are also quite large for a bat, reaching 4 cm long – the largest of any bat species in North America.
Spotted bats are gentle animals and are not known to be aggressive. They usually live in colonies of about 20-30 bats, but some colonies have been known to contain up to 100 bats. They roost mostly along cliff edges and trees, and other dark places during the day and fly out at night to hunt for food.
Spotted bats are currently listed as a “species of least concern” by the IUCN because their population is more secure than originally believed.
Canyon Bat (Parastrellus hesperus)
The Canyon Bat – also called the western pipistrelle, is one of the cutest bat species in the world. It is found in the Southwestern United States and Mexico.
The Canyon Bat is a very small bat, one of the smallest in the continental United States. It has a cute, fluffy face, a full soft coat of grey to brownish fur and a wingspan between 7.4 and 8.5 inches in length. The facial features, ears, feet, and flight membranes of these bats are almost always black or very dark in color.
It feeds on many different insects such as moths and wasps, and can be found near streams and other sources of water. Though unsurprisingly given the name, it prefers to reside in canyons.
The Canyon Bat usually heads out to hunt early evening, so if you’re camping you might be lucky enough to spot one at sundown.
Grey-Headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)
The grey headed flying fox is considered to be one of the cutest bat species in the world. They have a reddish brown body and a grey head. It has a wingspan of up to 3.3 feet and weighs up to 1 kilogram and is found only in the swamps, forests and woodlands of Eastern Australia. They are in fact, the largest bat in Australia. So what makes a bat this size cute?
What makes them so adorable is their facial features, which include large eyes and a pointed snout. They have very possum-like features and they are also known for their gentle parental nature. Babies stay close to their mums, clinging onto her for the first few weeks of life.
At nightfall, grey-headed flying foxes fly up to 50 km from their roost in search of food. They have been known to eat the flowers and pollens of 187 different plant species, making them an important pollinator and spreader of the seeds of these plants.
Despite their cuteness, grey headed flying foxes are actually quite threatened. Their populations have declined by over 80% in the last 20 years due to habitat and food loss, as well as destruction due to extreme temperature events, likely caused by global warming. They also have to worry about predators such as eagles, goannas and snakes.
Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum)
The Greater Horseshoe Bat can be easily identified by the flap of horseshoe shaped skin around its nostrils. This horseshoe shaped noseleaf helps the bat to focus the ultrasound it uses to ‘see’ by means of echolocation. It is the largest horseshoe bat in Europe, and can reach around 11.4 centimetres from nose to tail. It also has a wingspan of 34 – 39 centimetres.
The fur of the greater horseshoe bat is soft and fluffy. They have a light grey base color, with grey to white ventral sides and dorsal sides of grey brown.
The Greater Horseshoe Bat is known to eat large insects in flight but also eats cave spiders and some beetles including the dung beetle. It prefers to roost underground while hanging upside down and is mostly active in woodland.
Greater Mouse-Eared Bat (Myotis myotis)
The Greater Mouse-eared bat is a rare bat species in Great Britain. The species was believed extinct until several individuals were discovered in recent years. With an adult body span up to 9 cm and a wingspan up to 40 cm, it is the largest bat species in Great Britain and one of the largest in Europe where populations are larger.
Their face is bare and a pink color. Their ears are light in color and long and broad, like cute mouse ears. They have a darker, reddish-brown back with lighter white to brown fur on their underside.
This type of bat doesn’t use echolocation to find its prey in mid-flight like many other bats. Instead, it uses echolocation for spatial awareness, roaming the ground looking for insects that make noise, such as, beetles, large moths, centipedes and spiders.
It emerges after sunset and hunts in meadows and fields, gardens and woodland margins.
Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus)
The hoary bat is a species of bat in the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae. It is the most widespread of all bats in the United States and, though not yet recorded in Alaska, these bats are thought to occur in all 50 states. It is the largest bat normally found in Canada and Chile.
They have blunt, rounded noses and small, beady eyes, and their ears are short, thick, broad, and rounded. The bat has a distinctive yellowish-brown collar under its chin and the ears are yellowish in color and edged in black.
They are a migratory species of bat, during which they are known to be able to fly at speeds up to 13 mph at an altitude up to 8,000 feet! Outside of migration and mating, they are a solitary species of bat.
Hoary bats generally prefer to eat moths and beetles, but are also known to consume mosquitoes during periods of high abundance. They will also eat small wasps, flies, grasshoppers, dragonflies, and termites.
Red Bat (Lasiurus blossevillii)
The red bat (western red bat) has been found around parts of South America. and South & Central USA. These bats are similar to birds, in that they migrate to the southern parts of the world when it gets cold and head north when the weather starts to warm up in northern hemispheres of the world.
This species gets its name because of its distinctive fur color. Males are brick or rusty red, and females have a slightly more frosted shade of red. Many of the hairs are tipped with white. Both sexes have shoulder patches of white fur.
The bats will most likely be found in the forest roosting under leaves. They do this because they are either trying to eat or hide from predators. The bats hang upside down from a tree branch from one foot because they are trying to blend in with their surroundings, such as dead leaves.
Northern Ghost Bat (Diclidurus albus)
Along with the Honduras White Bat, the Northern Ghost Bat is one of only three known species where the pelage is all white. These bats are native to Central America and the Northern countries within South America – around the neotropics.
The distinguishing features of this medium-sized bat are its fur colors (snowy white to pale gray), a sac located at the membrane between its hind legs (uropatagium), and a tiny thumb. It is this vestigal thumb that helps to tell it apart from other members of its genus.
The Northern Ghost Bat also has pink wing membranes, a furless face, big eyes, and short yellow ears. It is an insectivore, and is known from reports in Costa Rica, to sing a unique song when it is eating.
Soprano Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus)
The Soprano Pipistrelle is a small bat with reddish-brown fur and black wings. It has a wingspan of approximately 9 cm (3.5 in) and a body length of approximately 4 cm (1.5 in). It weighs only about 5-7 grams (0.18-0.25 oz).
If you live in the UK, this is the most common type of bat that you will see. It is also widespread across much of Central Europe and Scandinavia. These cute little bats love to roost in rooftops, commonly found in rural and suburban areas.
They usually come out to hunt after sunset and can be found flying around rivers and ponds commonly, when insects start to rise.
Pied Butterfly Bat (Glauconycteris superba)
Encounters with little Pied Butterfly Bats bats are rare. So rare in fact that following only the fifth ever capture of a live individual in 2013, the taxonomy of this bat has changed twice. As we learn more about the relatively unknown species, its classification has naturally evolved.
They have an incredibly distinctive, badger, or panda like black and white/light yellow fur across their bodies, with wings predominantly black. They have also been said to resemble bees with their markings.
The Pied Bat has been found in a few small locations within a handful of Sub Saharan African countries, including DR Congo, the Ivory Coast and South Sudan.
Within these countries the habitats it is most likely to be found in are dry forests and moist lowland forests that are tropical or subtropical.
Sulawesi Flying Fox (Acerodon celebensis)
The Sulawesi Flying Fox is one of the cutest bat species in the world. It has an almost fox like appearance to its face, with a long pointed nose. It could easily be mistaken for a canid species by face alone.
It is found in the Celebes Islands of Indonesia and has a reddish brown fur with a white face. These bats weigh only about two ounces and have a wingspan of about 18 inches. They are also known for their friendly disposition and are often seen playing with each other in the trees.
The Sulawesi flying fox, primarily consumes coconuts and breadfruits. Their habitat of choice is near mangrove forests so they can easily find their next meal. These creatures typically live in large groups that are called “camps.” While the mother bats go off to search for food, the baby bats socialize with each other back at camp.
Which bat do you think is the cutest? Did we have it on our list? Or perhaps you have another in mind.