Bats : an illustrated guide to all species / Marianne Taylor ; Merlin D. Tuttle, science editor and photographer.

From the Giant Golden Crowned Flying Fox, a megabat with a wingspan of over five feet, to the aptly named Bumblebee Bat, the world's smallest mammal, the number and diversity of bat species is proving to be very rich and vastly underestimated. Nocturnal, fast-flying, and secretive, their behaviors are extremely difficult to observe and catalog. This lavishly illustrated handbook offers in-depth profiles of 300 megabats and microbats and detailed summaries of all the species identified to date. An endlessly fascinating guide with a hefty introduction exploring their natural history and unique adaptations to life on the wing, Bats includes close-up images of these animals' delicate, intricate and sometimes grotesque forms and faces, each shaped by evolution to meet the demands of an extraordinarily specialized life.