More than 1,400 bat species live around the world, except in Antarctica and a few remote islands. What makes these flying mammals so successful?

Over their 50 million years of evolution, bats have developed ingenious solutions to life’s challenges, from a built-in sonar system for finding prey to dexterous wings that create the fastest horizontal flight of any animal on Earth.

“There is still a lot to learn, but it is clear that bats really do have superpowers,” says Rodrigo Medellín, an ecologist at the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a National Geographic Explorer.

“Bats are showing us how to live a better life,” for