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bats

Screen capture from video of Francisco Sanchéz receiving an Ig Noble prize for Ben Gurion University's research on drunken bats, September 18, 2025. (YouTube)
September 29, 2025, 2:30 pm
Israeli team wins Ig Nobel for batty research on drunk chiropterans
Team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev finds that plying leather-winged mammals with alcohol impairs their ability to fly and echolocate
By Stuart Winer
Illustrative: Bats in cave Teumim in Beit Shemesh on October 9, 2006. (Jorge Novominsky /Flash90.)
July 15, 2023, 1:25 pm
High Court blocks Galilee vacation home project that endangers rare bat nesting cave
Court finds planners did not take into account potential ecological damage and says obligation to preserve nature for entire public trumps company’s economic interests
By ToI Staff
A dead common kestrel at the foot of a wind turbine at Sirin in 2017. (Israel Nature and Parks Authority)
July 20, 2022, 5:19 am
Environment minister seeks moratorium on new wind farms to probe impact on nature
Ministry says 200 new turbines, some as high as Israel’s tallest towers, planned for gusty Golan and other areas, endangering wildlife, with protective tech having ‘zero effect’
By Sue Surkes
A female Egyptian fruit bat leaves the cave with her pup attached underneath (Yuval Barkai)
December 6, 2021, 4:50 pm
Israeli scientists discover how bat moms teach young to navigate
Process, tracked by sensors attached to animals, includes dropping pups off at ‘nursery’ trees while mother forages for food
By Sue Surkes
A medic collects a swab sample from a woman at a COVID-19 drive-through testing site in Jerusalem on November 29, 2021. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
December 6, 2021, 2:00 pm
Daily Briefing Dec. 6 – Is Omicron affecting Israel yet?
Science and health writer Nathan Jeffay looks at how variant is making itself felt in Israel, while environmental reporter Sue Surkes discusses fruit bats and underground mapping
By ToI Staff
An Egyptian fruit bat (Seregraff via iStock by Getty Images)
June 2, 2021, 6:02 pm
Sick bats self-isolate, helping avert COVID-type crises — Israeli study
Widely assumed to be source of coronavirus, bats probably spared us from other diseases, scientists say; the mammals stay ‘home’ when sick, protecting fellow bats, other species
By Nathan Jeffay
A Kuhl’s pipistrelle bat. (CC BY-SA, Salix, via Wikipedia)
March 12, 2020, 11:31 am
Farmers should turn to bats to combat destructive pests, Israeli researchers say
Team from Ben-Gurion University finds that bats in Israel increasingly prey on invasive insect species known to ravage cotton crops worldwide
By Luke Tress
Lesser mouse-tailed bats are pictured inside an abandoned Israeli army outpost next to the Jordan River in the West Bank on July 7, 2019. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)
July 17, 2019, 11:13 pm
Bats hang where Israeli soldiers once stood in Jordan Valley
About a dozen IDF posts near Jordan border abandoned after 1967 war are now swarming with winged mammals, following Israeli conservation efforts
By AFP and ToI Staff
Illustrative image of a fruit bat (Courtesy)
June 27, 2019, 3:12 pm
Fruit bats can transform echoes into vision, study shows
Tel Aviv University researchers shed light on how bats and perhaps other mammals and humans integrate multi-sensory information
By Shoshanna Solomon
This file photo taken on June 22, 2016, shows fruit bats hanging in a cage at a bat shelter created by Israeli animal activist Nora Lifschitz in Israel's central Elah Valley, south of Beit Shemesh. (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)
October 31, 2017, 11:56 pm
Bats have regional accents, Israeli study shows
Tel Aviv University researcher says different dialects rare among non-humans, variations comparable to London versus Scottish accents
By AFP
Illustrative photo of bats sleeping (CC BY, darkday, Flickr)
December 28, 2016, 11:53 pm
Bats fight over food and friends, sometimes for fun
Tel Aviv University researchers say winged mammals are sophisticated animals who develop communication skills over time
By ToI Staff
Ruthi Soudack
July 5, 2016, 1:54 pm
Ruthi Soudack
The tragedy of the bats
A poignant story of immense cruelty that also reveals how amazing people with huge hearts answer the call of a moment
Israeli animal activist Nora Lifschitz holds a wounded fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) at her new bat shelter in Israel's central Elah Valley, south of Beit Shemesh, on June 22, 2016. (AFP/Menahem Kahana)
July 1, 2016, 12:59 pm
Israel’s ‘Batwoman’ works in secret to heal winged friends
At first, Nora Lifschitz took care of fruit bats in her Tel Aviv apartment, but growing numbers made her realize she needed to relocate
By Jonah Mandel
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