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Bat Planet:
The Mysterious Life of the Creatures of the Night
by Neil Griffin (Orca $24.95) For ages 9-12
Review by Heidi Greco (BCBW 2026)
Do you suffer from chiroptophobia? And no, that’s not the fear of chiropractors, but of bats. As Neil Griffin explains in Bat Planet, the bat is not a creature to be feared, but valued. Yet if this sounds batty, I hope you’ll read on.
Part of the Orca Wild series, which always manages to convey oodles of information in an entertaining manner, Griffin’s book meets the challenge with flying colours—on bat wings no less!
There’s an entire chapter on the marvels of the bat’s wings with illustrations showing how wings have evolved from the age of the prehistoric pterodactyl through to modern-day birds and bats. Griffin describes the bat wing’s lacy bone structure as resembling the shape of spider webs. While that comparison makes sense, when I look at the amazing closeup images, I also think of the delicate structure of leaves with their intricate patterns.
But wings aren’t the only focus of Griffin’s explanations. His experience as a wildlife biologist has taken him across the planet and he takes readers along with him while he explains the steps scientists follow when they observe bats in their natural habitats (creatures which, incidentally inhabit every continent except Antarctica). He even gives us the reasons certain environments are best for particular kinds of bats, whether that’s the climate or the available food supply.
One of the most fascinating chapters concerns what they eat. While many North American bats make our summer outings more pleasant by eating thousands of mosquitoes, others sip on nectar and a small number even drink blood, though such a small amount—barely a tablespoon—the host animal would hardly notice.
“Blood doesn’t have many nutrients in it, and vampire bats need to feed every day or they’ll starve to death,” writes Griffin. “Fortunately, they’re good at sharing. If a hungry vampire bat returns to its colony, the other bats around it will share their food by throwing up a little bit of blood. They even remember which of their fellow bats have helped them in the past, so they can return the favor in the future with some blood barf of their own. A little gross, maybe, but very generous and a good reminder that the animals we might fear are much more complicated, interesting and beautiful when we take the time to understand them.”
Along with clearing up some of our misgivings about vampire bats which, after all, don’t even live further north than Mexico, he disentangles several other myths about bats. We learn that, contrary to many beliefs, they’re not blind, they don’t always hang upside-down, they certainly don’t all have rabies (most rabies infections in human—99%—come from dog bites), and they’re not just “flying mice” (in fact bats are more closely related to bears than mice). Sadly, we also find that bats, like so many other species on earth, are facing a number of threats to their survival—due to habitat loss, risks from invasive species, and
climate change.
Neil Griffin’s sense of humour is evident throughout, even in his bio note where he describes his day job as a teacher who “works with the most dangerous wild animals imaginable: teenagers.” No doubt he’s one of those teachers who knows how to make learning both memorable and fun for his students. Yet this isn’t to suggest that he ever dumbs anything down. He uses the vocabulary of science, explaining such concepts as binomial nomenclature with accuracy and clarity. He even gives us a mnemonic for remembering the order of the terms used in classifying species. Nearly every page contains a scientific term, bolded—not only to highlight it, but to let us know it’s defined in the glossary at the back of the book.
His “lessons” extend beyond the realm of science with interesting examples of art and lore from a number of cultures going back to early Egyptian and Maya civilizations that valued bats. He cites Chinese cultures which value bats as symbols of health and luck. He also relates a story from the Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk) “ … about a great lacrosse game between birds and four-legged animals. Bat, with his wings, asks to join the birds, but they reject him as being too different from them. He joins the mammals instead and, through his ability to fly, helps them win the game.” All of these traditions serve to remind us of the many reasons to care about bats.
While he offers cautions about handling bats (ask an expert for help) and certainly doesn’t make them sound like good potential pets, he opens doors to understanding these fascinating creatures who are too often misunderstood by most of us and provide many benefits to their ecologies and, indeed, to mankind. 9781459841451
Heidi Greco and her partner tried building a bat house, but failed to attract any tenants. They plan to try again, this time with help from an expert at bcbats.ca.
The Mysterious Life of the Creatures of the Night
by Neil Griffin (Orca $24.95) For ages 9-12
Review by Heidi Greco (BCBW 2026)
Do you suffer from chiroptophobia? And no, that’s not the fear of chiropractors, but of bats. As Neil Griffin explains in Bat Planet, the bat is not a creature to be feared, but valued. Yet if this sounds batty, I hope you’ll read on.
Part of the Orca Wild series, which always manages to convey oodles of information in an entertaining manner, Griffin’s book meets the challenge with flying colours—on bat wings no less!
There’s an entire chapter on the marvels of the bat’s wings with illustrations showing how wings have evolved from the age of the prehistoric pterodactyl through to modern-day birds and bats. Griffin describes the bat wing’s lacy bone structure as resembling the shape of spider webs. While that comparison makes sense, when I look at the amazing closeup images, I also think of the delicate structure of leaves with their intricate patterns.
But wings aren’t the only focus of Griffin’s explanations. His experience as a wildlife biologist has taken him across the planet and he takes readers along with him while he explains the steps scientists follow when they observe bats in their natural habitats (creatures which, incidentally inhabit every continent except Antarctica). He even gives us the reasons certain environments are best for particular kinds of bats, whether that’s the climate or the available food supply.
One of the most fascinating chapters concerns what they eat. While many North American bats make our summer outings more pleasant by eating thousands of mosquitoes, others sip on nectar and a small number even drink blood, though such a small amount—barely a tablespoon—the host animal would hardly notice.
“Blood doesn’t have many nutrients in it, and vampire bats need to feed every day or they’ll starve to death,” writes Griffin. “Fortunately, they’re good at sharing. If a hungry vampire bat returns to its colony, the other bats around it will share their food by throwing up a little bit of blood. They even remember which of their fellow bats have helped them in the past, so they can return the favor in the future with some blood barf of their own. A little gross, maybe, but very generous and a good reminder that the animals we might fear are much more complicated, interesting and beautiful when we take the time to understand them.”
Along with clearing up some of our misgivings about vampire bats which, after all, don’t even live further north than Mexico, he disentangles several other myths about bats. We learn that, contrary to many beliefs, they’re not blind, they don’t always hang upside-down, they certainly don’t all have rabies (most rabies infections in human—99%—come from dog bites), and they’re not just “flying mice” (in fact bats are more closely related to bears than mice). Sadly, we also find that bats, like so many other species on earth, are facing a number of threats to their survival—due to habitat loss, risks from invasive species, and
climate change.
Neil Griffin’s sense of humour is evident throughout, even in his bio note where he describes his day job as a teacher who “works with the most dangerous wild animals imaginable: teenagers.” No doubt he’s one of those teachers who knows how to make learning both memorable and fun for his students. Yet this isn’t to suggest that he ever dumbs anything down. He uses the vocabulary of science, explaining such concepts as binomial nomenclature with accuracy and clarity. He even gives us a mnemonic for remembering the order of the terms used in classifying species. Nearly every page contains a scientific term, bolded—not only to highlight it, but to let us know it’s defined in the glossary at the back of the book.
His “lessons” extend beyond the realm of science with interesting examples of art and lore from a number of cultures going back to early Egyptian and Maya civilizations that valued bats. He cites Chinese cultures which value bats as symbols of health and luck. He also relates a story from the Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk) “ … about a great lacrosse game between birds and four-legged animals. Bat, with his wings, asks to join the birds, but they reject him as being too different from them. He joins the mammals instead and, through his ability to fly, helps them win the game.” All of these traditions serve to remind us of the many reasons to care about bats.
While he offers cautions about handling bats (ask an expert for help) and certainly doesn’t make them sound like good potential pets, he opens doors to understanding these fascinating creatures who are too often misunderstood by most of us and provide many benefits to their ecologies and, indeed, to mankind. 9781459841451
Heidi Greco and her partner tried building a bat house, but failed to attract any tenants. They plan to try again, this time with help from an expert at bcbats.ca.
