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No, bats aren't blind. All bats can see, although some species aren't exactly eagle-eyed. While scientists believe smaller bats don't see in color, many species get around amazingly well in the dark. Some bat species have the added advantage of echolocation -- the ability to bounce sounds off an object, including prey, to determine its size, shape, and location. The Bat Conservation International reports the echolocation of a fishing bat is sophisticated enough to detect a minnow's fin as fine as a human hair sticking up just 2 mm above a pond's surface. Those of us with LASIK should be so lucky. So saying you're "as blind as a bat" without your contacts isn't really an admission of poor eyesight. It's just an idiom dating back hundreds of years. Though they may be as hungry as a horse, as quiet as a mouse, and as happy as a clam, bats aren't, well, as blind as a bat.
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