# Can bats see better at night? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bats-see-better-at-night/546626 "2010-07-14T03:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bats-see-better-at-night/546626/1 "2010-07-14T03:16:04Z")
I’m arguing with my know it all friend, and I need to settle this. I googled it and wikied it but didn’t get the hard answer I’m seeking. (In other words, maybe I just didn’t find what I wanna hear) Can a bat see better at night? I know about echolocation and everything, but I need to know if their actual vision with their eyeballs is better than humans, and is it better at night than in the day time. I said to my friend, no, they can’t see better at night, but now I doubt myself as this know-it-all friend laughs his ass off at me. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bats-see-better-at-night/546626/2 "2010-07-14T04:22:38Z")
Depends to some extent on the kind of bat, since some species like the large flying foxes are at least partially active in daylight. However, some bats are better able to see in dim light conditions than they are in bright conditions. From [here](http://fladdermus.net/thesis.htm): > [@](#): > > As may be expected from a retina consisting predominantly of rods, the visual sensitivity generally declines as the ambient illumination increases towards daylight (Hope & Bhatnagar 1979b). This indicates that the bat eyes work better in dim light than in bright light. This has been verified behaviourally by Bradbury & Nottebohm (1969), who found that Myotis lucifugus avoids obstacles better under ambient illuminations resembling dusk, than they do in bright daylight. … > [@](#): > > …Among the vespertilionids, Eptesicus fuscus showed the highest light tolerance, and among the phyllostomids, which generally responded to lower luminance levels than the vespertilionids, Artibeus jamaicensis showed the highest tolerance. This presumably reflects the relative importance of vision in the different species, but perhaps more importantly the time at which these species normally emerge in the evening, and to what extent they are exposed to bright light (Hope & Bhatnagar 1979a; b). …Although, light tolerance levels have not been measured in these bats directly, the small receptive fields and the low receptor-to-ganglion ratio (ca 1:10) in Saccopteryx spp., compared to that of other microchiropteran species (ca 1:100), indicate a high light tolerance and good resolving power as expected. In fact they resemble diurnal mammals in this respect (Chase 1972). Nevertheless, the eyes of Microchiroptera work well under low ambient illumination, although the sensitivity to different light levels and the ability of brightness discrimination vary considerably between the different families and species. I haven’t worked my way through enough of the rest of the article to be able to compare bat vision to human vision; however, I think that they would be able detect light at lower levels, but in general have lower visual acuity (ability to distinguish objects.) ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bats-see-better-at-night/546626/3 "2010-07-14T04:37:02Z")
Colibri, don’t think it has gone unnoticed that you tend to come to my rescue when my General Questions sink like a stone on the page. Thanks so much. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bats-see-better-at-night/546626/4 "2010-07-14T04:46:03Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Colibri, don’t think it has gone unnoticed that you tend to come to my rescue when my General Questions sink like a stone on the page. Thanks so much. What else is a Curator of Critters for?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bats-see-better-at-night/546626/5 "2010-07-14T08:23:28Z")
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